Press Release by the Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights: A Social Agreement to help children of Parents with serious illnesses

Reference Number: PR212019

The Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights has extended a social agreement over the next three years with the Karl Vella Foundation, which helps children of seriously ill parents, as from a psycho-social aspect.

The Karl Vella Foundation believes that childhood is amongst the most important milestones during a person’s development, and thus strives to ensure that each child achieves and maintains his or her dignity to the full. This especially applies in situations where the children have family members who are suffereing from serious illness,  as a result of which less attention would be able to be devoted to the children themselves.

From 2019 till today, 149 children benefitted from services offered by the Foundation. Thus far, over 1,200 therapeutic sessions have taken place, either in an individual manner or in groups. During the pandemic, this Foundation still kept on providing one-to-one sessions, not only to the children themselves, but also to their parents or their legal guardians.

During a visit he carried out at the same Foundation, Minister Michael Falzon stated that this Government is doing its utmost in order to continue making a difference in the lives of each and every child, who are already going through a turbulent time, as a result of unexpected illnesses.

“Through the agreement that we have before us, we will be guaranteeing the funding of €300,000 over a period of 3 years. We must ensure that through a continuation, we are able to further strengthen the services provided, together with the training and engagement of even more professionals within this sector”, claimed Minister Michael Falzon.

In the meantime, during the next year the Government will be allocating the sum of €22 million on social agreements, where these also include those carried out within the disability sector itself.