The much-awaited Ronald McDonald House Charities Learning Centre in Qawra is about to welcome its first guests. Simonne Pace catches up with RMHC chairman Martin Xuereb and executive coordinator Tonio Axisa ahead of its opening later this month
The Ronald McDonald House Charities Learning Centre in Qawra, the charity’s first major project in Malta, will be opening its doors on June 28.
The facility, in the north of the island, aims to fill the regional void in specialised and accessible support services for children facing challenges related to learning disabilities or general disadvantages.
With this in mind, RMHC, in coordination with the Autism Parents Association (APA) and ADHD Malta, will be reaching children and young people on the autism spectrum and others diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The programmes, which will be tailored to specific needs, aim to help children obtain the core skills and competencies necessary to lead a better life.
RMHC, which globally promises to ‘keep families close’, will deliver on this promise by ensuring that the support provided to the children also benefits their families and guardians by extension.
This is why the centre’s facilities and resources will also be made available to other voluntary organisations, even the smallest, so that they can provide their own services in the area.
“We are seeking to build a community within a community so that our investment in this project produces tangible outcomes through a portfolio of diversified services,” said RMHC Malta chairman Martin Xuereb. “We intend to work very closely with as many people as we can from the local community, including schools.”
RMHC Malta’s executive coordinator, Tonio Axisa, said: “We have directed considerable resources to the centre, which has been purposely designed to deliver services, and we have received tremendous support from numerous benefactors in Malta and internationally to equip the premises.”
There are four classrooms with interactive whiteboards, consultation rooms, therapy rooms, lockers for children of different ages, and a staff room which will double as a space from where other NGOs can operate. The centre also features a fully-fledged, catering-grade kitchen where children will be taught basic cooking skills so that they will be able to look after themselves if necessary.
“The centre meets very stringent health and safety and security criteria, and we are now looking forward to opening the doors to welcome our first clients,” Mr Xuereb said.
The RMHC Foundation was set up in Malta in 2015 as a non-profit organisation to improve the quality of life of vulnerable children on the islands. It forms part of the RMHC global network that dedicates its resources to children’s healthcare and supporting families who need to be by their children’s side when hospitalised.
We have found that there is a considerable need for parental support and guidance
Around the world, RMHC runs numerous houses and rooms in and around major hospitals to keep families together. The charity was in the news some months ago when Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, donated some of the flower arrangements from her baby shower in New York to the local Ronald McDonald House, where young cancer patients stay with their families.
“We are open to supporting children with disability or learning difficulties, as well as young adults who might be experiencing the effects of social deprivation and exclusion,” Mr Xuereb said.
The learning centre will be hosting programmes to improve the health and well-being of children and teenagers facing life challenges related to poverty, disability and learning difficulties. It will also seek to provide services to parents of children with needs “as we have found there is considerable need for parental support and guidance”.
Initial services include an education support programme which will offer tailored support for children in small groups outside school hours. RMHC will work with the APA to run the Social Integration Programme for Teens (SIPT) and a support programme for parents of infants with autism. SIPT will see 25 teenagers coming together to learn and have fun in a safe environment.
RMHC will also focus on children diagnosed with ADHD and their parents. The Social Smarts programme for children with ADHD is a course intended to help children develop their social skills.
“We will also involve parents by providing them with courses offering effective ways to cope and manage symptoms of a child’s ADHD. To facilitate attendance, while the parents are attending the programme, their children are following a separate programme with qualified therapists,” Mr Axisa explained.
“The centre is spread over one floor measuring 360 square metres and we will be able to run programmes concurrently. We are determined for the RMHC Learning Centre to be a hive of activity, starting off with three programmes: SIPT will cater for 25 teens; Social Smarts will be attended by four groups of 12 over a one-year period; and the ‘Raising Kids with ADHD’ parent training course will see 18 parents and nine children per course.
Both ADHD Malta and the APA will use the centre to conduct one-to-one consultation sessions with a special focus on supporting parents of children who have just been diagnosed.
The centre is not just for children and their families living in the area. “However, we felt that the north of the island is somewhat underserved. Being in close proximity to those who need support will also help us reach out to whoever is in need more efficiently and effectively.”
Globally, the RMHC is McDonald’s favourite charity and one of the most enduring corporate-charity relationships in history.
It was originally founded in the early 1970s through a partnership between Dr Audrey Evans, an oncologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, McDonald’s and the Philadelphia Eagles, the American football team.
McDonald’s and its franchisees and licencees around the world give the charity the opportunity to place donation boxes in all its restaurants, offering RMHC access to millions of customers every year and their incredible generosity.
RMHC Malta is supported generously by Premier Restaurants Malta, the operator of the nine McDonald’s restaurants in Malta. Besides accommodating donation boxes and coin spinners in the restaurants, McDonald’s makes a donation from every Happy Meal sold and puts up the annual McHappy Day fundraiser in November to encourage customers to donate towards the RMHC cause.
The RMHC Learning Centre would not have been possible without the generosity of many benefactors from a cross-section of businesses and professionals around Malta and overseas. Donations can be received at https://www.rmhc-malta.com/charity/donate/.