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How do you interpret the unprecedented drop in donations collected during one of Malta’s most popular charity marathons last week?
The man behind the Kerygma Volleyball Marathon – Fr Charles Fenech – would not be drawn into any possible reasons for the Lm91,774 drop in contributions over last year’s record sum of Lm235,274, but an overall negative economic outlook and the fact that there are too many fund-raising activities going on throughout the year did not help much.
Another ongoing fund-raising activity by Fr Fenech himself is to finance religious radio station, Radju Marija, run by volunteers and totally independent of Kerygma. He needs Lm150,000 to seal the takeover from Radio Calypso which he insists will be collected from listeners.
“We won’t analyse the possible reasons behind this year’s (drop in) contributions,” Fr Fenech said when contacted. “We’re very happy with all the volunteers’ contribution, we had very positive results, they gave their all … we don’t look at the money.”
In itself, the 242-hour marathon with some 1,700 volunteers remains an exemplary show of young people’s commitment and motivation, although with a total of 95,000 visitors over 10 days one would have expected heftier donations. Last December, l-Istrina managed to collect just under Lm900,000 for charity.
Half of the Lm143,500 collected this year by Kerygma will go to Dar tal-Providenza and the rest will be given to Lourdes Home in Gozo and the Ursuline Sisters’ Home for children in Sliema.
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