
Tuesday, 6th May 2008 - 10:50CET
Updated: Commissioner concerned over Lourdes Home children's re-housing
Carmen Zammit
The Commissioner for Children, Carmen Zammit, (picture) said today that she was concerned that a suggestion she and others had made for the government to step in to help Lourdes Home so that its young residents would not need to be re-housed was not given sufficient consideration.
The Home, which was at the centre of abuse allegations, is being closed down and may be converted into an old people's home.
Ms Zammit she was concerned over the trauma the children were suffering because of being re-housed, to Malta, and also the fact that Gozo could end up without a single children's home.
"This action is taken notwithstanding the recommendations made by the Commissioner for Children, together with concerns raised following her consultation with the children involved in a visit to the Home," a statement by the Office of the Commissioner said.
"This severely compromises the ability of the Commissioner for Children to seek to ensure that the rights and interests of children are properly taken into account by government departments, local authorities, other public bodies and voluntary and public organizations when decisions on policies affecting children are taken, as laid down in the Commisisoner for Children Act, the Office of the Commissioner said.
In its statement, the Office said the commissioner remained concerned over the fate of the children.
"The transition from the family home to a residential care institution is a traumatic occurrence in itself for the children involved, without having to be exacerbated by cutting the ties that the children would have formed whilst in Lourdes Home. The children have not only changed their residence, but have also been separated from one another, changed schools in the run-up to the exam period, and moved to a neighbouring island. These factors already present difficulties when considered separately, and are magnified when they are imposed on these children simultaneously."
The office pointed out that the commissioner in her recently published Manifesto for Children, had already highlighted the problem of the lack of residential care facilities in Gozo.
"Since the publication of the manifesto, the problem has increased dramatically with the closure of the only residential care institution for children on the island. Gozitan children now have no facilities for out-of-home care where required.!
The Manifesto for Children states that "every effort should be made in order to provide alternative services for children who require out of home care, including the provision of fostering by professionally trained and adequately paid foster carers".
The Commissioner said she was urging the authorities to take heed of this suggestion, and to take urgent steps to address this lacuna.
"The Commissioner also urges the immediate provision of all necessary professional support to the previous young residents of Lourdes Home, in order for the best interests of the child to be given due paramount importance."




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Abuse is not discipline for crying out loud! Has it occured to you that being abused leads to feelings of unworthiness and could lead to a life of crime? Or do you think that people are born criminals and need it to be whipped out of them? Do you think that being beaten and humiliated is character building? Thankfully most people of good sense nowadays consign views such as yours to history, where they belong, and where we can learn from them in order not to repeat the same tragic mistakes.
What the commissioner for children, Carmen Zammit is experiencing right now, has already been experienced by her predecessor Sonja Camilleri. Same old story. No vote for change= no change.
Heqq...children have no votes.
So much for Christian Love and Charity! Shame on you!
On a separate note, who on earth is going to trust these women with their elderly parents or grandparents?
I agree that any abuse should be investigated. The guilty persons should be removed, but the nuns who are not to blame and the children, should not be affected.
Where is justice when it is the innocent, children and nuns (who had nothing to do with the case) who suffer instead of been protected.
People must learn not to generalise, and blame only those who did wrong and the not the whole home.