Caritas director Leonid McKay is boosting services to address issues of loneliness. Photos: Matthew Mirabelli

Solitude has been added to the list of scourges that Caritas Malta combats, following an increase in the number of lonely people hosted at its Christmas lunch.

The idea behind the lunch was born in 2015, after a homeless drug user who dropped in at the out­reach premises in Floriana told director Leonid McKay that he would be spending Christmas on his own.

Mr McKay kept brooding over the fact that, unlike many who will be spending Christmas surrounded by family and friends, there were others who had nowhere to go on the day.

So on Jum l-Impenn, which is when Caritas’s volunteers renew their commitment for the following year, he broke the news to his staff that he wanted to organise a meal around Christmas Day for homeless drug users.

His plan was to host around 20 people at the Outreach Centre for a simple meal – an extension to the Christmas meal hosted at the San Blas therapeutic centre.

Since it was already December, Caritas quickly produced a short TV clip to let homeless drug users know of the meal.

However, the majority of calls they received were from people who were lonely. From 20, the number grew to some 140, and on the day, around 200 people turned up at the Curia, which was opened specifically for the meal.

While the diners included homeless people and drug users, the vast majority were those who had no one to spend Christmas with, and they hailed from all socio-economic backgrounds and ages.

“No one complained about the last-minute decorations and the meal, which consisted of just soup and baked pasta… We soon realised that people had not turned up for the food, but for the company,” Mr McKay said.

The following year, people started enquiring whether there was going to be a repeat of the meal, months ahead of Christmas Day.

Mr McKay said the meal allowed Caritas to understand the magnitude of the problem of loneliness, which only intensifies in the knowledge that others are gathered together sharing a meal and presents.

There was no question of whether to hold the event last Christmas. Some 320 people turned up, but Mr McKay knows there are many others who, for some reason or other, did not turn up.

Mr McKay added that those who attended the Christmas lunch should not spend the remaining 364 days on their own, and he appealed to lonely people to head to Dar Papa Franġisku, in Birkirkara, which is open every day.

Anyone – not just the homeless, the poor or drug users – can turn up if they are just looking for some company.

In the meantime, the team of some 100 volunteers present for the Christmas Day lunch will have the opportunity to keep in touch with those who were hosted for meal.

Others who were at the meal and who were lonely because of losing their spouse, for example, have already been directed to Caritas’s existing support groups.

Mr McKay noted that Caritas’s focus will remain people in need, irrespective of what the issue is, with a strong provision of drug rehabilitation services and advocacy on poverty.

While the latter two will continue to be strengthened, as trends continue to change it hopes to increase its services to address loneliness.

Caritas is exploring new ways of ­­tackling rehabilitation, following an increase in the number of under 18-year-olds being referred by schools.

The organisation currently supports some 600 victims of drug abuse every year, including those who drop in at its Outreach Centre, and this number gradually grows from year to year.