When a 19-year-old Gozitan woman found out she was pregnant she thought her world had collapsed but, with the right support, she regained control of her life.
"I remember thinking: what will become of me? But with the support and guidance I received at Dar Ġużeppa Debono I started thinking in the terms of: where do I want to be headed?," Joanna Piscopo said.
Four years after giving birth to her son, Ms Piscopo decided to give something back and now leads the under-18 support group offered by the Gozitan home that yesterday marked its 25th anniversary.
Home co-founder Maria Attard explained that the home, in Mġarr, offers various services to young mothers before and after the baby is born. Currently the home is working with five pregnant women and offers support to 25 mothers with the help of some 50 volunteers.
Although the service is open to Maltese and Gozitan women, there is no similar home in Malta. However, Ms Attard said, the home was working on setting up a support group for Maltese mothers.
Ms Piscopo elaborated that after realising she was pregnant, a midwife had told her about the home.
Sometime later she and a friend, also pregnant, phoned the home and met up with Ms Attard.
"Since that day a strong friendship was born with Maria. I used to attend the support classes every month where I used to love the fact that I could speak with other pregnant young girls in the same situation as myself and without being judged...
"It's easy to choose the easy way out and move in with your boyfriend or consider abortion. But I learnt that it pays to keep on going. When my son was born it was amazing to see how, cell by cell, he turned out so perfect, at least in my eyes.
"He is the centre of my world but I still manage to go out and maintain my hobbies... Pregnancy is not an illness and all you need is support," she said.
Agreeing on this point Ms Attard, a teacher, explained how she first got the idea to set up the home 25 years ago.
Her students' experiences opened her eyes to the reality that there lacked a place that offered support to pregnant young women.
Apart from offering a place to stay, the home now also offers tailored programmes to ensure women keep studying or working, legal and medical advice, counselling, and adoption and fostering services.
As the age of pregnant mothers dropped, the home also started carrying out educational campaigns in schools.
This year the home also plans to meet with members of Parliament to promote a message in favour of life.
Gozo bishop Mario Grech praised the work carried out by the home, adding it promoted a message in favour of the family and life from conception by offering support to mothers and their families.
The home is named after Ġużeppa Debono, the Gozitan woman who set up Lourdes Home - the residential home for children that was closed two years ago. Ms Attard stressed that the two homes were independent of each other.
Alternative homes had to be found for the 10 children who lived at Lourdes Home, in Għajnsielem, after the Dominican nuns who ran it decided they could no longer continue working with minors.
This decision emerged in the wake of a report, commissioned by the Gozo Curia, which established that physical abuse against some of the young residents had been committed in the past. The children have all been re-homed and their progress is being followed by social workers.