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Id-Dar tal-Providenza is launching a fundraising campaign entitled “Sabiħ li tagħti” – the joy of giving – in order to continue providing its professional services to its residents. Unfortunately, during the past few months, donations have decreased drastically while costs have increased exponentially due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, during which the organisation has had to invest in new structures in order to safeguard its employees and residents.

Ms Nadine Camilleri Cassano, the administrator of the home, explained how during the past few months when our country was afflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, the institution had implemented a number of measures according to the safety protocols issued by the authorities, in order to safeguard its community.

Id-Dar tal-Providenza has purchased a number of smartphones for its homes and the residents’ apartments so that every group could keep in touch with families and friends during the pandemic. This was possible thanks to the heavy investment provided by MITA for the Home’s Wifi system, which was inaugurated by the President of Malta. This upgrade also included modernisation in the technological infrastructure in order to allow teleworking for the administration team.

The institute also invested heavily in protective personal equipment for all the members of staff who are in direct contact with the residents, as well as masks, thermometers and disinfecting materials. The areas more frequently used by the residents and staff were cleaned and disinfected more regularly and rigorously, while secure transport was offered to all the workers. All the health personal working with the residents were given specific training to deal with the situation.

Ms Camilleri Cassano also explained how throughout this period all the residents were confined to their apartments and houses, as all outings were cancelled. The ‘Ability Promoters’ team, led by Ms Margaret Vella organised various activities to keep the residents entertained. These included street music sessions twice a week, as well as arts and crafts activities. The carers regularly took the residents out to enjoy the gardens of the residence.

“Despite all the difficulties, we worked together and did everything possible in order to protect our residents in the best way possible, while ensuring that they enjoy a good quality of life and in an environment which promoted their wellbeing. All these measures translated into an investment of around €60,000,” she concluded.

Mr Manwel Zammit Member of the Board of Directors also explained how this scenario presented a double challenge to the administration team, who had to take into account incurring extra expenses during a period when donations decreased drastically. He remarked that under normal circumstances, the annual volleyball marathon in aid of Dat tal-Providenza would be launched around this period, an event which normally generates around half a million Euro in donations for the residence.

He also explained that “we had to halt all operations from our office in Valletta, while donations from persons who regularly visited the residence also petered out.” This resulted in an extra burden on the resources of the institute.

However, Mr Zammit also expressed his gratitude to the sense of solidarity shown by various organisations and commercial entities that reached out and helped the Home during this difficult time, including donations collected by the Malta Together initiative, cleaning services provided by Bad Boy Cleaners, the Corinthia Group of Companies and Norwex Limited, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Rotary Club for the donation of masks, Siegfried Malta Ltd for the supply of disinfectant, Bitmac for the provision of tarmac and the donation of kitchens for the Balluta residence as well as Dar Pirotta.

Mr Jesmond Saliba, Member of the Board of Directors of Dar tal-Providenza, spoke about the challenges of the past few months, where besides the difficulties from the financial aspect, all the family visits to the residents had to be stopped. He also referred to the fact that all the professional services offered by the House, apart from some exceptions, depend totally on the donations of the Maltese people.

In this regard, he announced the launch of the initiative Sabiħ Li Tagħti – the joy of giving – which goes beyond the Volleyball Marathon, and which will be an umbrella scheme which will include all the fundraising efforts over the coming months, with the aim of keeping the Residence in operation.

One can donate through various ways which can be accessed on www.sabihlitaghti.org

He reminded that the Home requires 5 million Euro every year to run smoothly and cover all the services it offers to its residents, which is all supported by the generosity of the Maltese.

Mr Saliba continued to announce the sad news that Fr Martin Micallef, Director of id-Dar tal-Providenza, would be withdrawing from his responsibilities for an indefinite period of time while receiving treatment for a curable form of cancer.

“Fr Martin will be embarking on a different, more arduous marathon. This is a difficult period for us who work so closely with Fr Martin, as well as his family and the family represented by the Home. The mission of the residence will continue to be carried out in the best possible way, as always, by the Management team, the Board of Directors as well as all the workers of the Residence.”

He asked the public to be generous and make a donation that would not only help the residents, but would also encourage and sustain Fr Martin as he undergoes his treatment, in the hope that next year he will be able to take up his role at the head of this mission once again.

Prof. Charmaine Gauci, the Superintendent for Public Health, had a meeting with the workers at the House, whereby she thanked them for their continuous dedication and the commitment they showed to the residents during the pandemic, while thanking the administration of the House for taking care to implement all the required measures in order to ensure the health and wellbeing of all the employees and residents of the Home.

 

 

The administration of Id-Dar tal-Providenza has introduced new measures to enable visits to residents by their relatives who will be given an appointment. The duration of these visits is not to exceed 15 minutes.

Some visits have already started taking place and it seems the arrangements have been very well received as can be seen by the comment received by one of the relatives.

“A sincere well done for the initiative to allow me to meet my sister after long weeks during which I couldn’t get anywhere near her at Id-Dar tal-Providenza in Siġġiewi because of precautionary measures taken necessarily for the protection and well being of the residents.

Making a smart phone available was already a step in the right direction to establish contact with the residents as best as possible in these extraordinary circumstances. Now the Home’s administration has come up with another improvement making it possible to see our loved ones. I made an appointment and managed to meet up with my sister from behind a perspex. It was for me a truly beautiful moment because we saw each other and were near each other as much as humanly possible as well. Thank you for all that you are doing.”

Visiting hours during the week will be evenings only between 3.45pm and 6.00pm whilst on Saturdays and Sundays visits may happen between 9.30am and 11.00am as well as between 4.00pm and 6.00pm.
Relatives may show their wish to visit residents by calling on 2146 2844 with their details. Someone from administration will be calling back to inform them about the date and time of the booking of their appointment.
One of the first measures that Dar tal-Providenza took to safeguard the residents and the Support workers from the Corona Virus pandemic was to stop the usual visits by family and friends to residents in our homes. For that reason, in the middle of April the Home invested in a number of smart phones to ensure that the residents will still be able to maintain contact with their relatives and friends and vice-versa.

Fr Martin Micallef, Director of Id-Dar tal-Providenza, today celebrated Holy Mass in the chapel of the Home to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi’s death. Dun Mikiel, as more popularly referred to, was born in Valletta on February 10th, 1910. He founded the Siġġiewi Home in September 1965 and died on May 13th, 1987.

Due to the present COVID-19 situation, the Mass was said in a private manner. Usually, it was attended by members of the Malta Catholic Action, led by the President, Mr Josef Debono, residents and friends of the Home.

The Ability Promoters at Id-Dar tal-Providenza are a group of workers whose main task is to promote the well-being of the residents through integrated living, healthy choices and self-responsibility. They organise daily activities for residents including sports, workshops in arts and music, education and technology and leisure activities amongst others.
Due to the present circumstances, this year this group had to rethink their schedule of activities as some planned activities, especially those outside the home, had to be cancelled because of possible health risks for the residents. The residents at the moment cannot attend Day Centres and cannot go out and so the Ability Team came up with alternate ideas for activities to make up for this.
One of the new activities is the “Street music” which is being organised twice a week. The music team entertains the residents from the different courtyards nearer to the residents, while still keeping social distancing. The rest of the residents come out to enjoy the show from the balconies overlooking the courtyard. The residents especially those who really love music look forward to this event.
Just after the concert was over, one of the residents said “I know most of the songs being sung and I enjoy singing with them. I also hung the Maltese flag from our balcony.”

Recently the Maltese Government kindly donated 9,000 face masks for the use of employees working at the Home. These masks will have to be discarded after use.
Because of the eventuality that these masks will not last for ever, the Home’s seamstresses started producing face masks from a washable and reusable material.
Every employee of the Home will be getting four of these masks.
The Home thanks its seamstresses for their work and commitment to continue safeguarding the residents in all the Dar tal-Providenza homes from this virus.