The plight of one Church home for children with troubled family histories was revealed by a nun this week.

Care orders can sometimes be too harsh on the kids and on the nuns who take care of them seven days a week, notes the acting superior of Dar Sagra Familja, a Church home that looks after 11 children.

Sister Bernadette Galea says that, in some cases, it is hard for the children to be “deprived” of their parents and, in spite of their troubled family history, it is not necessarily what they want.

Meanwhile, the three sisters of St Joseph who look after the children, aged between three and 16, and who plan to take in more when they can, have no respite as some of the kids have nowhere to go at the weekends.

Sister Bernadette says some of the children are upset. She believes government care orders, whereby the state takes responsibility of them, may not always be in their best interest.

She points out that the orders are reviewed but feels that second chances for both the parents and the children should be considered more often.

The Children’s Commissioner recently set up a task force that will also tackle the issue of care orders, the subject of a report published last year. The report followed an inquiry after a child, who suffered from severe abuse, was sent back to live with his mother when no homes accepted him because of behavioural problems.

The report deemed such a situation “unacceptable” and concluded that the opening of other homes to cater for such children was “indispensable”. It also said nuns, who ran the homes, were overworked and needed support.

Dar Sagra Familja in Żabbar does not only cater for children under care orders or from abusive backgrounds. In rare cases, some children are so troublesome that their parents cannot cope. Their families may also have financial problems, fathers may be widows and mothers could be sick or have to work.

Although some may not go back to their homes at the weekend, they have what are known as “social contacts”, other families they can spend time with.

Then, there are those who have nowhere to go, but the three sisters of St Joseph, who run the home together with care workers, make sure they are occupied when the others leave.

At the moment, the children are “camping” upstairs while their living quarters undergo a complete overhaul . The furniture they had dates back to 1985 and was donated by a hotel, which was being refurbished at the time.

Until now, albeit comfortable, they have lived mostly on hand-me-downs but no one is complaining. “At the time, we were happy because we had nothing,” says Sister Bernadette. “The old furniture can now be moved to our summer house in Birżebbuġa, where we do not need anything – just a bed and the sea!”

Following the successful launch of the Jugs & Friends corporate social responsibility activity by Jugs Malta last year, the team-building and events-organising company has embarked on the refurbishing initiative in aid of the home.

Its project involves redesigning and re-kitting the children’s living quarters, which include two dorm-like bedrooms and their play area.

The rooms are being stripped, repainted and fitted with spanking-new furniture.

The company has gathered 20 clients who, together, have donated €22,000 worth of furniture and fittings. They have also offered the manpower to carry out the refurbishment works.

The rooms are being refreshed with new curtains, cushions and linen, down to the details, including wall art for above the beds and guards for those of the babies.

But when asked what modern bedrooms would mean to them, the young girls merely shrug shyly. “We already had beds before… For us, it is the same, as long as we have somewhere to sleep.”

Theirs is not an attitude of ingratitude; they are simply content with what they had and do not complain about it.

What interests the three girls, aged 10 and 11 and in the home for between three and seven years, is the luminous splashes of colour that the employees of the 20 companies involved are busy painting on the walls, together with a gender-neutral mural of a bright countryside scene.

Asked what they wanted to do most, the girls say they wish to “help others”. One of them wants to do missionary work abroad. But pressed on what they really desired for Christmas, their travels extend to America and they go for mobile phones, iPads and even a rocking chair.