MALTA: €300 allowance for people aged 80+ being distributed

ST. JULIANS, Malta / The Malta Independent / March 31, 2012

By Keith Micallef

Thousands of people aged 80 and over, in the past days started receiving the €300 allowance announced in this year’s budget. Others who will be 80 in due course will receive a pro-rata allowance later during the year. The allowance is estimated to cost the government around €3.5 million a year and over 12,000 people will benefit.

During a visit to the Sliema day centre, Minister for Justice, Dialogue and Family Chris Said and Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Mario Galea stressed that the government is committed to support the elderly and is sensitive towards their needs. They both emphasised that this year’s increase in the budget allocation for this sector is further proof of this.

Dr Said said that this benefit is being distributed to all elderly people aged 80 years and over, irrespective of their income. He explained that compared to 2008, when pensioners started to benefit from the full cost of living allowance instead of two-thirds as it was up to then, pensions increased by an annual €1,000 in total. It is estimated that the government spends €2.5 million daily on social benefits.

Mr Galea listed several measures being taken by the government which include the removal of VAT on home help and private nursing for the elderly and a daily investment of €180,000 on eight residential homes. Meanwhile, work is well under way on a €10 million refurbishment project to convert part of Karin Grech Hospital into a rehabilitation centre for old people, who cannot be kept for long stretches at Mater Dei once their condition starts improving.

On this particular issue, Mr Galea said that in the first three months of this year around 600 patients were transferred from Mater Dei to various residential homes around the island, to free up as many beds as possible. Last year, the total figure of transferred patients stood at 1,367.

The government was also looking to address the shortage of beds in state-run residential homes by paying for beds in privately-owned homes. From a modest 34 beds four years ago, this year the government will be paying for 385 beds in private homes, to ease the problem.

The Parliamentary Secretary also announced that a new night shelter will open in St Vincent De Paul in two months’ time, while a new day centre in Kirkop due to open shortly will raise the total number of day centres on the island to 19.

© Standard Publications Ltd 2004

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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

MALTA: Elderly dance, sing to days gone by

MALTA / The Times of Malta / News / August 17, 2011

By Claudia Calleja

Animators enliven the show for residents at St Vincent De Paul home for the elderly.

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli.

Rhythm and song are acting as a youth elixir for elderly people who are being encouraged to forget their age and worries for a few hours and concentrate on having some fun.

Residents in old people’s homes around the island are swinging their hips and tapping their feet to the beat of music provided by a group of animators from the Malta Drama Centre that is touring the residences this summer. Even those with walking aids dance on their wheelchairs or walkers and participate in the fun. Old men and women are also encouraged to reminisce about their past during the events organised in association with the Family Ministry, the Secretariat for the Elderly and the Directorate for Lifelong Learning.
The activities include Spanish dancing, choral singing in Maltese, English and Italian and għana spirtu pront (improvised folk singing).

“The aim of the project is to provide entertaining, interactive activities for the elderly and offer alternative personal and communal therapy for the residents,” said project coordinator Mario Azzopardi.

Patricia Gatt, involved in the project as a field researcher, explained that the programme addressed both elderly people who were full of energy and the more fragile ones. While some of the residents, almost 100 years old, recited rhymes Maltese women used to come up with while doing the washing, others had to make a bigger effort to access the past.

“There have been a considerable number of residents who find it hard to challenge feelings of isolation and self-pity. It is here that the arts, especially music and dance, can help in establishing a connection with the past, with one another and help in the release of tension brought on by an array of medical conditions,” she said.

At the moment, there are 690 elderly residents in Church-run homes and 1,005 in government institutions

Folk living in old people’s homes are being nudged into having fun by animators from the Malta Drama Centre who are touring the residences over the summer. The men and women are also being encouraged to reminisce about their past during the events organised in association with the Family Ministry, the Secretariat for the Elderly and the Directorate for Lifelong Learning. Photo:Matthew Mirabelli.
 
Copyright © 2011 timesofmalta.com
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.

Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

MALTA: Those were the days

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VALLETTA, Malta / The Times of Malta / Interview / May 5, 2010

Frank Zampa, 70, reminisces about the Valletta he knew as a boy and as a young man as he talks to George Cini.

"I remember standing in the balcony of the house we lived in, overlooking Kingsway (now Republic Street) watching well-to-do gentlemen waiting outside the barber shop next to the then cinema called Coliseum (now Ranieri's), run by an Italian by the name of Merola. The clients, all elegantly dressed, would stroll back and forth in front of the barber shop until they were called in by Sig. Merola."


Frank Zampa at his jewellery shop in Valletta. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The entrance to the Zampas house was in Carts Street and they could also enter the house through the Ellis photography outlet in Kingsway.

The enclosed market in Valletta, known as Is-Suq tal-Belt, was a veritable hive of activity. In the market's basement, the firm Caruana Curran produced slabs of ice about a metre long and 15 centimetres wide. The firm used to refrigerate the meat for butchers who had stalls at the market.

When news broke out in 1939 of a possible war in Europe, Philips, who had a shop in Kingsway next to Carts Street, brought two loudspeakers outside their retail outlet and people milled around to hear the latest news.

"War for us kids was an adventure. As soon as we heard the siren signalling an air raid, we went down the shelter beneath the area now called Freedom Square. The block where Ellis was had been bombed.

"The extent of the shelter was enormous. Going down was a spiral staircase and you might go down 100 steps and get dizzy by the time you reached your landing. At times, we used to close our eyes not to lose our balance."

Business transactions were carried out there and then with people using cash because most people held little trust in banks.

People used to buy gold as surety and to wear and show off during village or town feasts. They used to keep their jewellery in a tin box, often bearing the brand name Oxo, the broth cube company.

Business was carried out in the four corners of Merchants Street, corner with St Lucia Street. The sellers would wait at the corners and whisper their price in the ear of middlemen. Items for sale included potato seed, wheat and barley.

The café Cadena in Merchants Street was known as Ta' Żewwiġni, meaning The Matchmaker. It gained this name as many a mother would take her daughters there hoping for a good match.

After the end of World War II, Nerik Mizzi, who, together with others accused of harbouring Italian sympathies, had been interned to Uganda at the beginning of the war was released and went to live in St John Street, Valletta, opposite the church of St Mary of Jesus (Ta' Ġieżu).

Dr Mizzi, who studied law in Italy, was a leader of the Nationalist Party with a vision for Malta as a European and Mediterranean nation. In February 1942, the British authorities issued a warrant for the deportation of 47 Maltese, including Dr Mizzi, who were exiled to Uganda. He was repatriated from Uganda on March 8, 1945 and immediately returned to Maltese politics by attending the Council Sitting on March 15.

"I used to go to his house and ask whether he needed any help. I had bought a Fiat Topolino, which had a soft top and used to take him around in it."

One day, during a meeting at Café riche in Vittoriosa, there were about 150 Nationalist Party supporters but the majority of listeners hailed from the opposite political divide.

"All of a sudden, steel nuts and stones rained over us. When Nerik Mizzi was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1950 he went to his office at the Auberge d'Aragon and then I escorted him in my Topolino to the Rediffusion cable radio office in Melita Street next to Pippo's to address the nation.

"I switched off the car's engine and was pushed along by supporters but when we turned into Old Bakery Street from Mayfair House, which then housed the offices of the General Workers' Union, eggs were thrown at us with one hitting me in the face.

"In order for the Prime Minister to be able to wave to the people who lined the streets, I removed the passenger seat and instead placed a bar stool and rolled back the soft top for Nerik to be in an elevated position." [rc]

Copyright: Allied Newspapers Limited

MALTA: One out of five elderly people at risk of poverty

. MALTA / The Malta Star / National Statistics / June 26, 2009

The National Statistics Office released a report Thursday of a national survey on income and living conditions (SILC). It says 10,630 elderly persons (aged 65 and over) were at risk of poverty, representing 20% of all elderly people in Malta. The report went on to say how similar rates were obtained amongst persons aged 59+ and over 69. The at-risk-of-poverty rate of males aged 65 and over was higher than that of females in the same age bracket. This is at a time when the global poverty rate stands at 13%. The report added how in 2007, just over half of the household population aged 65+ were living in households with two members of which 7,730 of these persons (2%) were at risk of poverty. The report also found that 28% (14,840 persons) of all persons living in households aged 65+ were living alone.

In the report, Malta’s at risk of poverty rate was estimated at 14%, below the European Union average, and found highest amongst children and the elderly.

“Monetary poverty is shown by the survey to be highly correlated to educational attainment and work intensity of the households,” the report also pointed out. The annual Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) carried out by the National Statistics Office sheds light on a wide array of variables, ranging from shifts in the demographic characteristics of households and distribution of income patterns, to home ownership, at-risk-of-poverty and deprivation indicators. Special tables focus on children and the elderly. The survey, carried out in 2007, also revealed that the total disposable income of Maltese amounted to €2.6 billion, with an average of €18,325 per household. Households in the Western district had the highest average disposable income. The report also found that 31% of all households are located in the Northern Harbour district, while just over 23% of households were either renting their dwelling or availing of free accommodation.

The report also pointed out that 83% of households that owned their main dwelling did not have a house loan tied to it.[rc]

(c) Copyright 2009 maltastar.com