Reflections on allegations over institute

I can’t allow the reporting of the alleged incidences of abuse at the Lourdes Home in Għajnsielem go without at least an attempt at raising national awareness of the conditions religious staff work under in children’s homes.

I certainly don’t want to sound like I’m in any way condoning abuse in any of its forms but knowing at first hand the situations that these religious must try to work and survive leads me to believe that it’s not the case of “rotten apples” but rather that of “rotten barrels”!

As a psychologist, I have for several years seen children and religious in the homes of Malta and the way these homes operate! I still can’t believe how our government continues to allow situations where people must continue to work even beyond human endurance!

The religious who work in homes do so on a schedule of 24 hours and seven days a week. They don’t only look after the kids but also wash their clothes, cook for them, attend board and Appoġġ meetings and take kids around for various professional and medical appointments. On the other hand these children are very emotionally hurt. This creates confusion and much anger in them which they then go on to act out among themselves, at school or towards the staff.

Recently, I have witnessed staff trying to cope with one child who screamed and shouted almost non-stop throughout an entire weekend. The sister who was looking after her and trying to mind the others was in tears and emotionally exhausted! After such a weekend, this same religious had to get up three or four times during the night because two of the children were sick. In the morning she attended to her duties as usual!

These religious have no days off and hardly time to attend to their spiritual and community life. There is no time to socialise or to even visit their family!

In addition, if there is need of extra help, like another carer to help relieve the work pressure and provide more emotional support for the children, there is nowhere to go so they end up having to fundraise. This takes a lot of time and energy which no religious working in children’s homes can afford!

I have written about this many times in various papers but no government representative contacted us or showed any interest in us!

And this where the rotten apple theory falls apart! We could dump all the rotten apples but unless we improve the work conditions of the religious working in children’s homes the barrels will continue to rot the apples irrelevant of their stamina or good will.