As many as 40 people drop in at an emergency shelter run by the State, the Church and a private foundation in Birkirkara for a daily meal they cannot afford to buy.
Mostly Maltese and of different ages, a few of the diners actually turn up at Dar Papa Franġisku because they suffer from solitude, one of the reasons that last year saw several make it to the Christmas Day lunch held by Caritas.
Originally planning to host between 20 and 40 people, mainly substance abusers and those who did not have the financial means to buy themselves a meal, Caritas had been inundated with calls from people who simply had no one to spend Christmas with.
About 200 people had made it to the lunch and, this year, the charity is preparing for an even larger group for the meal, which will be held at the Archbishop’s Curia, in Floriana.
They had no one to speak to about some ordeal
Experience has shown that being lonely does not by default mean being poor. In fact, one of those hosted for the lunch last year could have afforded a good Christmas meal and, in fact, he even made a donation to the NGO. However, though he could buy himself food and drink to celebrate the occasion, he was unable to purchase the happiness that being with others can bring.
Caritas Malta director Leonid McKay told this newspaper those present for the lunch had included a good number of elderly people and others with mental health issues, who were often out of a job and were socially deprived.
There were others who, although having a family, felt lonely as they had no one to speak to about some ordeal, such as domestic violence.
There was one particular case of a person who had been living in the shadow of a childhood trauma for years and fell into loneliness as she had never dared speak about it to anybody.