The European Union has designated the year 2010 as the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. This has prompted member organisations of Caritas Europa to launch awareness campaigns to promote action to help persons in this condition to raise themselves to a better quality of life.

Awareness is a step towards positive action. At the recent annual summit of religious leaders with institutions of the European Union, the president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (Comece), Bishop Adrianus van Luyn, warned against using technical or administrative measures that convert the poor into “objects of welfare”. What was needed, he explained, “is a way of helping poor people that will allow them to be ‘players’ in the joint struggle with society against poverty and exclusion”.

This, to a large extent, synthesises the outlook of Caritas Malta: While those in difficulty have to seek a way out of their predicament, all others in society, from individuals right up to the highest authorities, have the onus to provide them with the means to do so.

In this particular year, Caritas Malta is emphasising poverty awareness by making proposals aimed at reducing poverty and social exclusion. Victor Grech’s proposals have been largely eclipsed by the attention given by the media to one of his suggestions: To establish a more adequate minimum wage, which at present is €152.29 per week. This proposal had been made previously by others but seemed to draw most attention now.

Mgr Grech’s call was largely motivated by the need to bring the wage in line with rising costs. It is an anomaly that, while the cost of living rises at the same rate for everyone, income does not. A more adequate minimum wage would widen the narrow gap between the minimum wage and unemployment benefit which, incidentally, is reducing the incentive to seek work.

Acknowledging that the international crises of recent years had not hit Malta as hard as other countries and that substantial improvements in social welfare had been achieved, Mgr Grech made other proposals, including: re-defining the poverty line to a realistic level; setting up of cooperatives, which would give fruitful work to people who cannot find employment; giving due attention to the 42 per cent of students who end up on the labour market after their secondary education; guaranteeing legal, economic and social protection to families; providing better access to suitable housing to families with inadequate income; revising social benefits, especially for persons who cannot work due to special needs or chronic health issues; controlling more strictly tax evasion and clandestine trading; creating a model of wider cooperation between Parliament, the Church, NGOs, public and private enterprise and honest citizens to combat poverty and social exclusion.

Of particular interest was Mgr Grech’s presentation of a basket of essential commodities required for a basic lifestyle of an average Maltese household. To identify and cost this basket, Caritas Malta availed itself of the expert services of the National Office of Statistics and Suzanne Piscopo, nutrition, family and consumer studies lecturer and health, family and consumer studies coordinator and lecturer at the University of Malta.

The basket amounted to a total of €313.79 a week.

The Caritas Malta campaign kicked off with the song Inħallu f’Idejk, written and composed for Caritas by Philip Vella, produced by Sean Vella and interpreted by Annabelle Debono. Through the intervention of Marius Wanders, secretary-general of Caritas Europa, the song was enthusiastically adopted as the song for the Caritas Europa Zero Poverty Campaign. It was widely used during the European Conference on Poverty and Social Exclusion held in Madrid in June and will be included in the Caritas Europa closing event of the year in December.

The campaign has, to date, included several activities, among which a successful blood donation day in April, discussions, role playing and art exhibitions in schools. The department of social studies of St Joseph School, Sliema, organised a visit to Parliament, where students had the opportunity to address the Speaker of the House of Representatives and make proposals on how poverty could be reduced through education.

In April 2010, Caritas Malta participated in a meeting coordinated by the Anti-Poverty Forum and hosted in Parliament by former Speaker Louis Galea. The meeting was attended by members of the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee from both sides of the House and by persons who gave their personal experiences of poverty.

Other events are programmed for the coming months to keep up the debate on an issue that lies at the base of human solidarity.

The author is PR and fund-raising officer at Caritas Malta.