This year the Ministry of Justice, Public Consultation and Family will be helping three Non Governmental Organisations in Gozo, which offer services on a national basis, with more than half a million euro through the NGO Fund. Between them, Dar Guzeppa Debono, the OASI Foundation and the Arka Foundation will receive € 541,500.
The funds were distributed by Minister Chris Said at an event held at the Community Hall in Qala. The Minister commented that the fund is used to help NGOs and organisations working in the voluntary sector to continue to help people and vulnerable families and during the past year nearly € 2.9 million has been distributed to 30 different NGOs. This year’s financial allocation of the NGOs Fund has increased by almost € 400,000.
The Minister continued by saying that since the inception of this fund 18 years ago, almost 29 million euro has been given in direct financial aid to this important sector. The associations that have benefited range from NGOs working with disabled people, those who help with shelter for victims of domestic violence, offering support for young mothers and preventing and treating drug abuse as well as the disease of addiction due to toxic substances which includes both drugs and alcohol.
Minister Said concluded by saying that “in both Malta and Gozo there are a considerable number of voluntary organisations who are offering various services to our communities, such as, social, environmental, educational and sports sectors. For Gozo the number of NGOs is more impressive by comparison because of the the size of the island. Volunteering is a vocation and the huge amount of hours devoted to volunteering are invaluable and cannot be calculated or quantified in monetary value.”