Piggy banks tour schools for charity campaign

Three large open trucks, each carrying a big piggy bank, yesterday began visiting all schools to collect donations from schoolchildren in the final phase of Bank of Valletta's L-Istrina campaign 2004.

Peppi Azzopardi, the promoter of L-Istrina, the charity show broadcast on television every year, said: "What started off as an exciting idea in discussions with Bank of Valletta has turned out to be a wide-ranging initiative involving about 65,000 schoolchildren in Malta and Gozo.

"We have distributed 8,000 piggy banks to all schools. Over the past week, the children have been making donations in aid of L-Istrina. This has helped instil a greater appreciation of the value of solidarity among children who have made an effort to donate part of their savings in aid of those who are most in need."

More than 60 personalities will be assisting in the collection of the donations, which will take place until Friday. President Eddie Fenech Adami will be at St. Aloysius College to show his support towards this initiative. Members of Parliament and other personalities will also be giving their support.

It is planned that the funds collected, which will be placed in one large piggy bank, will be symbolically presented to Dr Fenech Adami on December 22 at Freedom Square, in Valletta.

The amount of money collected by the schoolchildren will then be revealed during the live transmission of L-Istrina 2004 on December 26.