“That was the week that was”, you might say, as I had a particularly enjoyable surprise during a busy week. Mrs Josephine Sant, a centenarian lady, generously paid me a visit as part of her family’s celebrations to mark her hundredth birthday.

It was so exciting for me and we shared some special moments together of joy and celebration. It is so wonderful that elderly Maltese are living so long and remaining fit and independent and still contributing to society. I am very grateful to Mrs Sant for her lovely visit, the memory of which will remain in my heart.

Malta Deaf Association (MDA) vice-president Steven Mulvany brought a delegation from the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (EFSLI) represented by president Peter Llewellyn-Jones and vice-president Lieve Roodholt to meet Family and Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia and me. EFSLI is a trans-European association that works towards the achievement of a higher status for the profession of sign language interpreters (SLI). It encourages the sharing of best practices and expertise in the field of sign language interpretation through proper and continuing education, increasing professional recognition and adequate remuneration.

The aim of EFSLI and its related voluntary organisations is to guarantee the right to access to SLI services as stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which was adopted by the EU in 2011. They do this by organising special courses and conferences in various European cities.

This year’s EFSLI AGM and Conference will be held in Antwerp from 12 to 14 September. I wish the organisation every success at this annual event and have invited it to hold its 2015 AGM and Conference in Malta. I have undertaken to do my utmost to help them do so.

I used this opportunity to discuss with Mr Mulvany and his distinguished guests the ongoing implementation of the Labour government’s electoral programme commitments towards the improvement of living standards for the elderly and those with disabilities, with specific reference to the deaf community, who are all part of our national family.

I was honoured to be invited to address the public discussion organised by OASI, the drug rehabilitation society in Gozo, on 26 June, which was the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. I stressed that this was no public holiday but a global day of observance of our duty to fight this major social ailment. Every year we use the special events on this day to raise awareness of what this problem represents for our society. My challenge was to appeal for national mobilisation to support drug control.

We discussed various issues such as decriminalisation, legalisation and de-penalisation. We made it clear that this is a very real situation and not an imagined one and I encouraged all those involved to cooperate with each other with the common aim of making Malta and Gozo drug-free. I cannot praise enough the invaluable work being done by OASI and I encourage them to achieve even more in the future. They know they will always find me ready to help.

I was very happy to accept an invitation to visit the residents at the flagship church institution for the disabled, Dar tal-Providenza. We were warmly greeted by director Fr Martin Micallef and we discussed increasing the successful cooperation between government and the church in the field of services for persons with disability.

Fr Martin expressed his gratitude for the government’s continued commitment and promised to keep up the high standard and expansion to be able to offer even day respite where possible. For my part, I wished him another success in the fund-raising marathon that is coming up soon and I also took part in the television marathon to raise funds.

The long-established St Vincent de Paul Home for the Elderly is now an autonomous entity with its own budget which has enabled decisions to make improvements and development happen much more speedily.

With the project to upgrade the premises completed, the home has just had its Medical Material Management Unit (MMMU) digitalised. I had the privilege of officially opening the new Unit and seeing its new IT record system, which will greatly improve the control of medicines and medical supplies to avoid waste and abuse.

Work carried out under the new autonomous management system has resulted in considerable improvements to a number of wards in recent months and soon we will be able to increase the number of beds.

But this has indeed been a very busy week and there is more I would like to mention. I also had occasion to confront a new major social problem while addressing a KNPD conference on people with disability who have challenging behaviour and apart from tackling the matter, I also announced a series of initiatives the government will be taking in the near future.

There is so much work to be done to improve the quality of life of the elderly and those with disabilities that I feel there will still be more to do if I live to be a hundred!

Over the coming weeks we will also continue work on the first residence for people with disability within the community, one of which is located in Siggiewi. We also aim to launch the KNPD Helpdesk in Gozo, which will be an informative portal for Gozo residents needing information about our services. I am also pleased to announce that, in the coming weeks, we will also be setting up the Guardianship Board.