Boys living at the Fra Diego Home in Ħamrun will no longer have to be separated from their brothers and sisters when they reach the age of 10, after a refurbished wing was inaugurated to home about 30 children and teenagers, up from the current eight.
“This is a dream come true. I have always looked forward to the day when 10-year-old boys do not have to leave the home and move away from their siblings,” Franciscan Provincial Sister Josephine Xuereb said yesterday.
At the moment, once boys turn 10 they have to be moved to a home for male children only, but through the new project they will be able to stay in sleeping quarters, separate from the girls’ dormitories at the home, until they turn 18.
Although Fra Diegu once accommodated tens of vulnerable children, the numbers recently dropped as the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who administer and manage the home, grew older, with the youngest aged 70.
Mother Superior Sister Henrichetta Farrugia said the 10 nuns at the house, aged between 70 and 85, were taking care of eight children while its day-care centre hosted another 12.
In the coming weeks there will be a call for applications for people interested in becoming care assistants at the home.
The government will provide €610,000 in funding every year, so that four apartments accommodating eight children each will be fully operational by mid-2015.
The younger ones will be sharing a dormitory while adolescents will have their own room and bathroom facilities.
Priority will be given to siblings so that they can be brought up under the same roof, Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia said at the inauguration.
The new apartments have been refurbished over the past few years through funds provided by benefactors. The facility will also be equipped with a library, a gym, a multi-sensory room and a computer lab.
When they turn 18, the children will be followed up by social workers and helped to make the transition into independent life, Dr Farrugia added.
Speaking at the same launch, Mgr Victor Zammit McKeon, director of the office in charge of children’s homes, said in the meantime he hoped they would find people willing to foster or adopt the children.
“Kids have no place in a children’s home, but they should be with a family.
“I have been saying this for years and it’s still valid today,” he said, noting he was concerned at the growing numbers of children in out-of-home care.
There are at the moment some 600 children in out-of-home care, including those being fostered.
Dr Farrugia said next year the government will be launching initiatives for foster parents to home siblings, so they would not be separated.