The expression charity begins at home takes on a whole new meaning as it emerges that an aid organisation pockets close to two thirds of the sum paid for a magazine sold to raise funds for cancer.
Helping Hands - The Family Magazine is sold for €3.50 by roving sales representatives who try to sell the publication in commercial areas, busy streets or by knocking on households' doors.
They start by offering the magazine as a way to help the charity involved - a recent cause was a Breast Cancer Awareness campaign for the Health Department, in which some €10,000 were raised. The sales persons carry a tag showing they are acting on behalf of Helping Hands Foundation, a trading name for 03 Ltd, which is not a charity.
The sales representatives explain the cause of the day and how it affects the individual before asking the person to help out by buying the magazine.
What is not said, however, is that out of the €3.50 one pays, only €1.05 goes towards the campaign with the rest of the money covering the costs of the sales representative, printing and company expenses.
When contacted, Reuben Vella, the man behind the company, denied being misleading.
"Clients understand that production costs are involved," Mr Vella said. "No one does anything for free". He insisted that "100 per cent of profits go for charity", the rest being broken down as expenses.
Francesca Cutajar, 24, was one of those who bought the magazine after being approached by a sales rep in City Gate, Valletta. She never actually questioned how much of the money would be going to charity but when asked she assumed that "at least €3 from the €3.50 would go to charity" with the 50c going towards printing costs.
Mr Vella insists he had an honest deal. "Some clients ask us if all money goes to charity and we always answer that not all money goes to charity because there are production costs involved," Mr Vella said, adding it was then up to customers to buy it or not.
The quality of the magazine itself was, in Mr Vella's words, "amateur" and it was in their interest to keep it that way because it was a family magazine.
According to industry estimates, a run of 3,500 copies would cost 37c per magazine and a bigger run of 10,000 would bring the cost down to 23c per copy. This leaves at least €2.08, which eventually get split up between the salesman and the company.
Helping hands also has a competitor - OC magazine - started by a former Helping Hands salesman. It follows the same business model as Helping Hands and, when asked, sales representatives declared they received about €1 per magazine sold, with about a third of the €3.50 going to charity.