Fundraising events for the Community Chest Fund generated nearly €1million less in 2020 than in the previous year, as COVID-19 hit Malta’s pockets and saw mass events cancelled.

According to the Malta Community Chest Fund’s 2020 report, fundraising events, including L-Istrina, generated €5.2million in the year under review. 

The amount collected from the public was some €840,000 less than the roughly €6million collected in 2019.

President George Vella, who heads the fund, said that pleas for financial aid from those most in need did not stop when Malta was rocked by the global pandemic. On the contrary, they continued to fly in while the charity’s fundraising capacity was severely hamstrung.

“Hopefully, what we went through in 2020 will only become a bad memory and we will not go through it again,” he said.

President Vella also questioned whether generosity alone could keep the MCCF afloat. He had, just as his predecessors had done, resorted to turning to the government for financial aid to support those in need, he observed.

He said the drop in revenue by the fund was down to various factors, notably the cancellation of fundraising events as well as a technical error by GO that led to donations made to L-Istrina, Dar tal-Providenza, Caritas and others revised down by €1.4 million.

Marlene Mizzi who heads the MCCF’s board of administrators, said the charity had been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of its fund-raising events cancelled. 

Courses of cancer treatment financed by the MCCF can cost more than €120,000 per patient every year. 

Food vouchers, handed out to families struggling to put food on the table, cost the foundation nearly €20,000 every month. 

The MCCF also financed stays abroad for parents of children, or relatives of those who cannot travel on their own while receiving medical treatment overseas.