The Vodafone Malta Foundation Family Day taking place today to celebrate UNESCO's International Day of Families will provide a fun-packed day for all and at the same time raise funds for Caritas and the Eden Foundation.
The highlight of the event will be an attempt by Daniel Abela to cross the 1.2 km-wide Ghadira Bay underwater and back, weighed down with some 25 kg.
The Sunday Times interviewed Vodafone Malta Foundation chairman Gemma Mifsud Bonnici, about the event.
Why did the Vodafone Malta Foundation decide to sponsor this event?
The Vodafone Malta Foundation was established in November 2003. It is driven by one of Vodafone's core values, "passion for the world around us", which is about caring and commitment.
Vodafone's "passion" declares that Vodafone and everyone in it believes that they and what they do can be a force for good in the world - not only through a sense of duty, but because Vodafone cares passionately about the world in which we all live.
The Family Day brings together all the family for a day of fun and activities. Furthermore, by participating in this day, family members will be learning more about the work carried out by Caritas and the Eden Foundation, while helping raise funds for these two organisations. The Vodafone Malta Foundation is delighted to support an event which, while assisting the organisations, promotes the value of helping out in the community.
This is not the first time that the VMF is helping the Eden Foundation and Caritas. What is it about these two organisations that makes them worthy of support?
Neither the Eden Foundation nor Caritas need any introduction in the local community. Both organisations are renowned for the priceless work they conduct in their own fields on a daily basis.
The Vodafone Malta Foundation has worked with both organisations in the past and we are pleased to help them again through Family Day. There are of course several other organisations worthy of help, with whom we have also worked.
The number of children under the Eden Foundation's care are increasing. This in itself requires more facilities and professional people. Furthermore, the Eden Foundation is always facing new challenges as the children under its care grow up.
Caritas, which is a worldwide organisation, was established in Malta 30 years ago and offers a myriad of services that support our community. All services are available free of charge through qualified and professional personnel. Although heavily dependent on volunteers, the organisation requires Lm40,000 a month to operate.
Budgets are limited, both organisations are mostly dependent on donations and fund-raising, and we are happy to see two major entities joining forces in such an event. We are happy with this event and hope that many more organisations will follow this example.
How does supporting this event fit in with the other activities in which the foundation is currently involved?
Through its involvement in the local community the Vodafone Malta Foundation helps remove the barriers that prevent people from participating fully in society and supports programmes that seek to develop skills, to increase accessibility and to include people with special needs.
The Eden Foundation and Caritas both seek to this through the programmes they have in place and through the services they offer.
Part of the funds collected from this event will support Dr Victor Grech's first online medical journal. What are the benefits of this project?
Through the Vodafone Malta Foundation we aim to share the benefits of the latest technology as widely as possible.
Our support for Dr Grech's medical journal Images in Paediatric Cardiology will get it indexed in the universal US NLM PubMed server.
PubMed is a free search system offered by the United States National Library of Medicine. It provides a means of searching the entire database online and is a key tool for all biomedical researchers. The contents of the journal are intended to be used as a teaching resource.
Other than to help the Eden Foundation and Caritas, why should families decide to spend their Sunday supporting this initiative?
The Vodafone Malta Foundation Family Day is a great opportunity for the family to spend a day together having fun.
Apart from Daniel Abela's challenge, in which he will be assisted by the Civil Protection's DART volunteers, the day at Ghadira Bay, kicking off at 10 a.m. will feature games for all the family, a tug-of- war featuring Alligators Rugby Team, a penalty shoot-out with leading goalkeepers, including Mario Muscat and Ernest Barry, a beach soccer tournament, an air to sea rescue demonstration by the Armed Forces of Malta and a dog and horse show by the Malta Police.
At 5 p.m., Mgr Victor Grech, director of Caritas, will celebrate Mass.