I refer to the letter entitled ‘Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna does not accept teacher’s card’ by Joe Chetcuti (The Sunday Times of Malta, May 24).

In his letter Chetcuti seems bound to ‘name and shame’ FWA for not allowing him in for free at two of its heritage attractions at will. Given his teaching profession, we find this very upsetting. He should know that FWA allows free entrance to all teachers, learning support assistants, carers and parents of students on organised school visits to our sites. We do the same for all licensed guides, tourism journalists and research students.

He then goes on to say that since all of our heritage sites are publicly owned and that we are an NGO, he ought to have gone in for free on the basis of his CTP card. Chetcuti must know that as a non-governmental NGO we operate on a not-for-profit basis but that does not absolve us from paying the bills which are enormous when one operates on a daily basis. All of FWA’s four regular heritage attractions were awarded a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence and an MTA Quality Assurance Certificate this year.

Furthermore, it is true that all of the heritage sites and buildings entrusted to us are publicly owned but it is as true that we are bound to run them in a self-sustainable manner and this has to be done using any funds raised from the same and from no other public source.

Before they came to us, each of these properties was in a dismal state, abandoned, misused or vandalised. Today, after almost three decades of constant hard work by generations of selfless volunteers and some paid staff (who also contribute a lot of their own time and energy for free) we have turned these into some of Malta’s best-preserved and shining examples of cultural heritage.

It is pointless for one to laud our work in writing or words unless they are ready to tangibly support it. The least one can do is to pay for one’s own entry into a museum or a heritage site and encourage others to do so. Alternatively, one can become a paid member, which will earn him the right to visit all of our museums, attractions and special events for free all year round. Leaving it to voluntary donations won’t work. And this applies not just to FWA but to all other operators in the field including Heritage Malta and Din l-Art Ħelwa.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.