The concept behind having a night shelter for elderly people, providing accommodation and food for people who feel alone and lonely during the night, is to be commended.

The Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly, Mario Galea, is not a Cabinet member who loves the media so much that he feels he ought to remind us about himself every day, unlike some of his colleagues.

It is only when he has something important to say, or a new idea to promote, that he makes his presence felt in the media. And this is certainly one of them, because the forthcoming launch of the first ever night shelter for the elderly deserves all the support it can get.

Last week Mr Galea visited the convent run by the Jesus of Nazareth Sisters in Zejtun, part of which is being converted into a night shelter. This is a pilot project aimed at enabling elderly people to continue living in their community, while at the same time providing them with the moral support that they are not on their own during the night.

Many elderly people, in particular those who live on their own, are afraid when dusk falls and start breathing freely only when the first light of dawn breaks. Many fear crime or even the fact that they might be taken ill, and therefore having a shelter where they will be taken care of and at the same time have some company will certainly make their life easier.

It is hoped that the pilot project will be so successful that other similar shelters are opened in other communities.

Local councils should provide a helping hand in this. They should take the initiative and approach the secretariat with their ideas as to how places in their locality could be converted into night shelters. We are sure that the government, where feasible, would be able to support such plans.

For the Zejtun project, the government will be giving e4,000 a year to the nuns who will be running the shelter. Some e92,657 were spent on the rehabilitation of part of the convent to include a dormitory with eight beds, a kitchen, a sitting and living area, a bathroom, a toilet, a store and a lift.

The cost that will be charged to the elderly people who make use of the service is very small – for e2 a night the elderly will sleep in comfort, knowing that if anything happens to them they will find immediate help, and then can also have breakfast in the company of others before returning to their own homes.

There is one other side of the story that, unfortunately, has a negative tinge. And this is the fact that the need for such shelters has arisen because many families do not take care of their elderly parents in the way that they should.

This happens for a multitude of reasons, but it is highly indicative of the way that younger generations neglect their elderly parents or relatives. That such shelters are needed is because elderly citizens are left on their own; sometimes they are not visited by their families for months, and it is also known that there are several occasions when they are taken to hospital and left there.

And so Mr Galea is correct to say that while it is the government’s duty to provide homes for elderly people and night shelters such as the one which will be opened in Zejtun, it should be the families of these elderly people who should be the first to support them in the last years of their lives.