Who are the people who benefit from funds allocated by the Malta Community Chest Fund and what do they go through?

Well, the people who apply for help and assistance come from all walks of life, because we offer various assistance from the most basic help like food vouchers for families who are in need and have problems to maintain their family, to the most latest and expensive chemotherapy in the market. So our request comes from people from all spheres and we try as much as possible to see how we can help.

Given the pandemic, what challenges has the Malta Community Chest Fund faced, especially since certain events had to be cancelled?

On a smaller scale, we receive the public. Our offices are based at the palace in Valletta and we receive the public there every Monday and Wednesday. The first challenge was that part of that work, where we normally have tens of people coming to speak to us. You know, that human contact – that had to be changed. That was quite a challenge even for me personally, as I am very much used to sitting with a patient and if the patient needs an hour, we dedicate that time. So that had to change, even the way we had to speak to them – we had cubicles.

With regard to a larger scale impact, when it came to main events like the Rockestra, the Fun Run – which usually generate a lot of people who participate – those had to be completely put on hold. Completely. So that means two large events which usually generate a lot of donations which didn’t take place. So that was the toughest challenge, because we still manage to maintain contact with patients through other means, but the large events had to be cancelled so donations started to dry up.

Even donations that usually people, for example, during Christmas time organise lunches, dinners and then they do an impromptu donation gathering – those things are not taking place. So we are always trying to see how best to fill that gap.

Is there a particular case which sticks to your mind, even maybe a success story or perhaps an unfortunate event?

Well, there are various success stories, and they become your stories sometimes. All of us – all the team – we take our work very seriously and very much at heart.

There is this little girl that was born with a very rare liver disease and she had to have a liver transplant. If you had to see her now, just a few weeks ago, she was running all over the place and you think “was she really that unwell?”

There are cases that touch your heart and make you change the way you look at life. IU remember at the very beginning when I started, this mother who when her young son passed away they were very poor. The father was serving a life sentence and the person who takes care of the funeral arrangements – because he knew how poor the family was – was refusing to help with the funeral because he was sure they were not going to pay him. This was a very strange request which we assisted with; basically she needed money to bury her son.

So that is the Malta Community Chest Fund. It helps in situations where most people would never dream that they would get to.

How can funding to the Malta Community Chest Fund help these people and from which various ways can people actually help?

People can help with their donations, no matter how small the donation is. It helps. Just a little bit from everyone it will help us keep on doing the work that we do. Our requests are various, for example people who travel abroad for treatment. The patient is usually sent by the government of Malta for treatment abroad, but we help the relative that accompanies the sick patient. The reason is that we try very much to assure that the patient is not alone. I think it’s very important – we all believe that it’s very important that when someone is unwell – seriously unwell – family and friends make a huge difference. So we help either the parents if the patient is still of a tender age, both parents or family members that goes with the patient, or if the patient is an adult – one person – we see that we help with the flights, accommodation and running expenses.

With the pandemic situation, most patients that are travelling abroad for treatment, their duration abroad has to be much longer because of the pandemic, quarantine, and all of that. The amount that they spend is much more so we need more help; we need to be there for them.

We are also experiencing a lot of loneliness in the patients, most patients even locally cannot have relatives visiting them – again because of the pandemic. So you get a lot of patient undergoing treatment, undergoing surgery, that spend a lot of time on their own just waiting for time to pass. We all know that when you are alone you tend to think more, you tend to worry more and you tend to be more anxious. So we also try not only from the financial aspect, we also try to be there for them, keep them company, speak to them and starting to get to know them. They start to become part of this large family that the Malta Community Chest Fund is. 

Final question, what would be your appeal to the public for this year’s l-Istrina?

This year was a strange one, from every aspect. But we have also realised how resilient the Maltese people are. We have seen it on the beginning of the pandemic. We have seen people who lived next to each other that weren’t actually neighbours who became neighbours that started to watch out for others. We’ve seen people in balconies singing and keeping companies and having sort of small street parties. We are resilient. We can pass through this. We need everyone’s help, as we always do. There are a lot of people that are surviving and making their life out of other people’s help.

Basically, I think that is what l-Istrina is. It’s everyone. I am Istrina because I form part of the Malta Community Chest Fund team. Journalists are Istrina because they give us space in their work. People who donate money are also Istrina. So, I think Istrina is that one day when all of us get together for our brothers and sisters.