The ShareMalta Foundation has sealed a partnership with the Rabat and Mdina mayors to secure help towards setting up cat cafés for stray felines in the two localities.

The foundation is managing the Young Citizens'Pilot Research Project, geared to assist in providing some of the badly-needed resources for stray cats and their feeders. The resources will be dedicated to cat cafés set in attractive gardens, recovery centres and food/care.

Due to the neutering programmes underway, the colonies will considerably decrease in numbers, making this project easier to manage in time.

Simon Micallef, 16, a student of St Aloysius College, is the first student to use the curriculum to help animals. With the help of other young citizens, the student is coordinating a survey in Rabat to establish the residents' views on stray cats.

Pupils from the Mtarfa Boys' School, who created a model cat café for the project, will be doing voluntary work to help strays.

The plan is that the cats of Rabat and Mdina will become a tourist attraction, as is the case in Rome, with the community taking ownership and pride in the project.

The foundation needs more volunteers to dedicate a few hours a month to assist with this worthwhile project. It is looking for mature people who have business or teaching experience and can coordinate on a committee, plus regular feeders/drivers and people who are computer literate to assist with the website.

The foundation is also looking for a home for some 25 kittens.

For more information contact ShareMalta 9921 9815 or send an e-mail to lovelifeforce@yahoo.co.uk.