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I am writing on behalf of many who are not able to voice the pain and distress they experience during one of the most beautiful seasons of the year and of the Christian calendar especially in relation to children.
The Maltese people are known for their generosity and during the Christmas season many organize parties or other activities for those in need. This is all very admirable. It is also most certainly necessary as otherwise those in need would not be furnished with the basic necessities of life. These people, children included, are very appreciative of what they are given.
However, do photos of these activities and persons benefiting from them have to be published in the press? Do the organisers or the press feel they must pull at the public’s heart strings by showing pictures of those so much in need. Surely we all know that there are people in need, and the fact that children reside in Children’s Homes (approximately 250) is very much a harsh reality. Does it matter who the children are or what they look like; what matters is that they are in need.
I work as a social worker with children in residential care and with needy families. I fail to find the words to express the heartache many of the children and their parents must go through year in year out on seeing their loved ones splashed across a page of some newspaper or on some TV screen because they have attended a party thrown by some organisation.
Were it not for the media telling all and sundry that the children in the photo/on screen are resident in a Home or in some kind of need, no-one would be any the wiser. ‘Friends’ at school taunt and bully these children that they live in a Children’s Home and that their families do not want them. The children beg us not to disclose to others that they are in such a Home.
Surely there is some other way we can attract the sympathy of the general public to donate funds towards the needs of these children or other children who are in need.
May I pose a question to you the reader of this letter, the editor of this newspaper, the producer and presenter of the TV programme, the parent, the teacher, the manager of the organisation:
“Would you like your child or other member of your family to be seen to be in need?”
I plead with all those concerned to give this question some deep thought. Please give our children the dignity they so very much deserve. They endure enough pain by not being able to live with their mummy and daddy. People who work with these children see this pain continually.
And another thing. If your goodwill can be spread throughout the year and provision made for their needs such as health, education including equipment, social activities, “Home” physical environment, the children’s care would be so much more enhanced.
Wishing all benefactors and all those involved in the media a happy and blessed Christmas. May the Year 2005 be bountiful for you and yours.
Marie Testa
Sliema
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