Over €2 million were raised for l-iStrina on Boxing Day and there were no prizes on offer. It was just a fun night organised by the President’s Office and the Maltese people really showed their generosity.

At a time when things are not so good, a vast majority of the general public dug into their pockets while other people took time out to take part in the actual games. The contribution was truly felt.

Some eyebrows were raised when people suddenly remembered that Dar tal-Providenza had their own annual fundraiser on New Year’s Day. Would the people respond? The answer is an emphatic yes. A record sum of over E600,000 was raised and again, it is clear, the people responded to the call for help.

The centre provides much needed respite for people who are truly in need of it. It also provides care and treatment for people who have very severe disabilities. The contribution which it makes to our society is indispensable, no questions asked.

It costs over E13,000 to run per day, every day, every week, month and year. Do we ever stop to even ask ourselves what this must mean? This is over E4million per year.

The church-run centre obviously runs at a loss and we must, as the general public, find more ways to help.

Make no mistake, the Home (one would never call it an institution) does have a healthy fundraising drive. The New Year’s Day fundraiser and the volleyball marathon are examples of this.

The government and its ancillaries help, as do the other political parties. There is also healthy sponsorship from companies in the private sector. But perhaps the most important gestures are those by groups of people who carry out all sorts of activities throughout the year to raise money for charity.

Giving money for such a cause is noble, but giving up one’s free time to take part in an activity that will be of benefit to others is nobler still.

The best thing about it all is that these activities are actually fun, as the new approach to the Strina campaign has shown. More and more people seem to want to take part in charity drives and the key to it all is that doing so allows us to escape our humdrum lives for a while. It allows us to feel good by doing something good. Most charity activities also involve physical activity and socialising, so it also does the individual taking part some good too.

But to go back to the needs of Dar tal-Providenza: they can only do so much. It is up to us, the general public, to help sustain the dignity of others. We must take part and we must continue to give. While many of us will thank God that we do not ‘need’ the centre ourselves, there might be every chance that we will in the future and therefore we should look at sustaining the Dar tal-Providenza as a collective duty.

The people who run the centre are a dedicated bunch who go over and above the call of duty to offer people a better life, but to do that, they need to be assured that the funds will come.

Let us go into 2010 with a new outlook. Let us continue to give and let us continue to be involved. It is amazing to think that with all the doom and gloom of 2009, we managed to close the year on a positive note.