NEWS | Wednesday, 03 December 2008

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Social welfare czar Joe Gerada resigns

Karl Schembri
Joe Gerada, the Chief Executive Officer of the government’s Foundation for Social Welfare Services, has tendered his resignation after eight years at the helm.
Contacted yesterday, Gerada confirmed he had submitted his resignation from the foundation and that he will be staying until the end of December on the foundation that runs Appoġġ, Sapport and Sedqa – the state agencies for children’s and families’ welfare, disabled people and drug addicts.
Gerada denied rumours that he was about to join Fondazzjoni Suret il-Bniedem – the Capuchin friars’ NGO that works with homeless people and runs open centres – saying his resignation was solely triggered by his desire to work elsewhere in the social field.
“I’m moving on … I will be joining another organisation in January, a private one, but I will keep working in the social sector,” Gerada said.
Gerada also denied having had any clashes with the new social policy minister John Dalli.
When contacted, Dalli too denied having had any clashes with Gerada. “We are now searching for a replacement,” Dalli said.
Throughout his career, Gerada has worked in social welfare agencies, including the Employment and Training Corporation, Sedqa, the Social Work Development Programme and Appoġġ.
Gerada has often taken strong public stands on social issues, including child abuse, drinking laws, the family court and gambling.
“We’ve enacted laws protecting animals but we still don’t have laws protecting children’s rights; it’s a shame,” he said in 2004 in the wake of the paedophilia scandal at St Joseph’s Institute, lambasting politicians for not having yet enacted a Children’s Act.
Last year, he also spoke against the mushrooming gaming halls which were sprouting everywhere, including next to children’s premises.
“Children are being sent to catechism lessons to save their souls only to be lured by the temptation of a gaming hall which has opened right next to the centre for Catholic doctrine,” he charged.
“Just as pushers are given a greater punishment if they sell drugs in the vicinity of a school, gaming halls should not be allowed to operate in with 100 metres of any school or youth club.”
Gerada had also denounced the gaming halls for illegally allowing minors inside, and Super 5 for giving record prizes prompting poor families to gamble instead of buying essential products in the hope of becoming rich overnight.
He was a big critic of the entertainment lobby, saying the financial interests of those who sold alcohol in bars and clubs were fanning the culture of binge drinking. “It’s not exactly an alcohol industry we talk about in Malta. It is the entertainment sector which works on young people through the indiscriminate advertising of alcohol, which targets minors. There is no control on the entry of minors into bars, and the sale of alcohol to under-16s is rampant,” he said in 2006.
He also brought to light the ongoing employment of a groundsman by the Malta Football Association, who had been convicted of defiling a 13-year-old boy. The MFA, which refused to terminate the man’s employment, accused Gerada of “cheap propaganda”, and instead proceeded to close Pace Grasso stadium to the schoolchildren from the nearby school which made use of the stadium.
His latest public protest was levelled at TVM’s teleseries Five 06, which deals with young women living in a sheltered home. Gerada accused the production company of lacking ethics in dealing with young people.
“This teleseries is portraying negative images on young girls in residential care and also on the care professionals who are looking after them,” he said.
Ironically, the series was produced by the Church’s Media Centre.
Last Sunday, Gerada said the current 250 children in residential care should fall by 80% while calling for new and comprehensive children’s legislation.

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