Jean Paul Fabri, the Youth of the Year 2010, is part of a team working on introducing a group of clown doctors for sick children at Mater Dei Hospital.
There is a whole team behind the idea, including psychiatrists, psychologists, medical students and volunteers, according to Mr Fabri, 27, from Attard.
The framework for this project idea is being developed in preparation for the pilot study, which Mr Fabri hopes will start this year.
Volunteers have been roped in and about 17 people are willing to impersonate the clown doctors, who will be given basic mime, theatre and improvisation training.
Although the planning of the project is still in its initial stages, the general feedback from volunteers and patients themselves has been positive.
“We might have just sowed the idea but now there is a whole team behind it,” he said.
The idea, the brainchild of Mr Fabri and Jean Pierre Busuttil, was born in Lourdes in June 2008.
Mr Fabri was accompanying sick children on the Faith 150 pilgrimage to Lourdes, commemorating the 150th year of St Mary’s apparition there. He is vice president of the Assoċazzjoni Voluntarji Lourdes (AVL), which takes sick people to Lourdes every September.
After that experience, AVL wanted to extend its voluntary work in Malta. “We can’t focus on Lourdes only. It has to be a starting point and then we’ll continue our work in Malta,” he said.
The clown doctors could be the best way to start offering voluntary work with a difference, he added.
The association will this year be celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special pilgrimage called Trust. Two planes full of Maltese, accompanied by the Archbishop, will be going to Lourdes later this year. AVL will be focusing on a larger inclusion of youth volunteers and sick people who have never travelled.
Mr Fabri has written a children’s book in Maltese and English about the rosary, the proceeds going towards transportation costs of sick children to Lourdes.
“Once you’re in it, it’s hard to stop,” Mr Fabri said.
His first experience in Lourdes was with a group of first year St Edward’s College sixth formers who went to the Joy 2000 pilgrimage. An economist by profession, Mr Fabri is a communications officer at the Prime Minister’s office, and also serves as part-time lecturer at the University of Malta. Yet, he still finds the energy to brighten up people’s lives. Apart from substantial doses of coffee, an appreciation of life gained through every pilgrimage is what keeps Mr Fabri going.
Any voluntary work was a pit stop where one pondered on the essentials of life. In such a fast-paced society one even took the next day for granted. In Lourdes, you found yourself with people who went through so much and, yet, still appreciated the small things in life, he said.
“The special thing about such experiences is that you are a shoulder for someone for just four days, a pittance when compared to the whole year. But, for that short period of time, someone will thank you with tears in their eyes,” he added.
“You do it for the sick person and his family but, ultimately, it boils down to something personal. You gain so much in giving that you ultimately need this experience yourself to be able to carry on.
“It’s the smile on the face, the small thankyous and the feeling of happiness that the whole group creates which make this effort worth it.
“I think everyone is a bit of a dreamer and it’s the dreams that keep you going at the end of the day,” Mr Fabri said, adding that when someone was brought up with values of solidarity he would not find it hard to lend a helping hand. The difficulty lies more with trying to find out the how rather than the why to do it. The Youth of the Year trophy is awarded every year in honour of the late Rudolph Saliba, a lawyer who was Kerygma Movement’s first president.