The year gone by has been a brilliant one for the QLZH Foundation. Following its launch a year ago ago by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who is also its honorary patron, the team behind the foundation intensified its efforts to be a catalyst of change within society. The foundation is managed by the founders and teams at QuickLets and Zanzi Homes (the QLZH Group), who since the beginning, were always dedicated to give back to the community.
The three main causes the Foundation has at heart are the environment, education and adequate housing. The foundation plants a tree for every house sold by Zanzi Homes, as well as sponsors the education of a child in Ghana for every property rented in Malta by QuickLets. In 2018 alone, the foundation planted over 400 trees and supplied schools in Ghana with 240 books through which over one thousand children will be educated in the coming years.
During the summer months, the QLZH Foundation also deployed the Plastic Police Squad. Seventy-one members of the environmentally conscious foundation spent their Saturdays visiting nine beaches around Malta. Kitted with high visibility bibs, garbage pickers and gloves, the team went round the most populated beaches in Malta educating bathers and catering establishments about the damage single-use plastic has on the marine ecosystem.
During their mission, the foundation’s members also collected any rubbish they came across. Around 61 rubbish bags were filled with incorrectly disposed items. These beach visits were part of a campaign organised by the foundation to combat the use of plastic, which also included four ocean bed clean-ups, with the first organised on World Ocean Day on June 8.
On this occasion, eight members from the foundation dived at Manoel Island and collected over 277 kilos of junk from the bottom of the sea. Following this, another three ocean bed cleanups were held at Mistra Bay, Xemxija and St Paul’s Bay. To support this drive and further raise awareness, the QLZH Group went single-use plastic free across all its branches.
The foundation got its own visual identity through the launch of its website www.qlzhfoundation.com. The foundation chose a logo which combines the two brands that started it all, QuickLets and Zanzi Homes. Four complementing colours using shades of brown and orange were chosen to evoke the natural tinge of earth and nature, representing the foundation’s commitment to the environment and humanity. Following this, the foundation organised its first fundraising reception at Verdala Palace, with the intention to raise money to support its short and long-term goals.
Last year the foundation also announced it was partnering up with ACT Environment on its project Saġġar, which aims to become a true catalyst for a proactive ecological rehabilitation movement by planting one million treess over the course of a decade.
Apart from all of this, the foundation also organised visits to St Vincent de Paul and the second edition of Make a Zanzi Wish.