With Christmas to be celebrated tomorrow, it also means that the annual Boxing Day fundraising telethon – L-Istrina – is also upon us.

The 12-hour telethon will be broadcasted across all Maltese TV stations and online, with donations going to the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation to support patients suffering from severe chronic illnesses and people going through serious social problems.

L-Istrina is about saving lives and if those lives cannot be saved despite the best of efforts, the aim is to give them a better quality of life when they are at their most vulnerable, and to provide some peace of mind for their families; families whose lives have been turned upside down, sometimes forever.

Last year’s L-Istrina came in the tense atmosphere of Malta’s biggest political crisis since independence, and €6.2 million was raised towards this cause.

This year, the atmosphere in Malta will be equally abnormal – but for altogether different reasons.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed everyone’s lives, but it has especially changed the lives of those who are most vulnerable and it has also changed how funds for these people are raised.

Some people last year believed that due to the extenuating circumstances that the country was facing, L-Istrina should be postponed until better times.  The overriding sentiment was however that the needs of the most vulnerable cannot wait, and the fundraiser went ahead. This year, once again, the needs of the most vulnerable cannot wait.

However, the fact is that the pandemic has meant that the fundraiser is already starting on the back foot.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, traditional fundraising events such as Rockestra and the President’s Fun Run couldn’t be held this year, which ultimately left the Community Chest Fund with fewer opportunities to raise the funds needed to cover the treatment and needs of those who sorely need it.  The pandemic and measures related to it have also restricted travel, meaning that only the most urgent cases can make it overseas – and those who do make it have to stay longer due to health precautions and other pandemic-related restrictions.

Covid-19 regulations also mean that the actual L-Istrina show will be scaled down from previous editions, but conversely, the need to for the general public to participate has never been more pressing.

If this pandemic has shown us one thing, it is that when the need for unity is greatest, the Maltese can come together to present a show of force.  Now it is time to come together and present not a show of force, but a show of generosity and solidarity.