The nuns running the Ursuline crèche in Sliema have filed a planning application that will enable them to welcome children back to the institution, this time as a childcare centre.

The creche closed its doors last year after taking care of thousands of babies in the home nestled in the heart of Sliema for a long 119 years.

The closure of the care home came after EU policies called for the de-institutionalisation of children under the age of three. Efforts are being made by the bloc to ensure that as many children as possible are raised within family environments rather than in institutions.

In an effort to breathe new life into the church home that welcomed so many children over the years, the mother general of the Ursuline Sisters, Sr Magdalene Cauchi, has now filed a planning application to turn the home into a childcare centre.

According to documents filed with the Planning Authority, the sisters are proposing to convert the children’s residential home into a daytime child care centre only at the ground floor level.

The proposal includes an office, reception area, toilets, a kitchenette, activity areas and sleeping quarters for the little ones.

Proposed interventions include the opening and closing of windows and doors, the construction of ramps to make the place fully accessible, the shifting of soil in the back garden and the removal of a concrete pool.

The application is due to be published in the Malta Government Gazzette on August 16 and representations are being accepted until September 22.

In an interview with Times of Malta last year as the home’s doors were closing, Sr Cauchi had said the number of babies and infants at the crèche dropped since 2020 and, in February, the last three children left the Sliema home. They had moved to the children’s home in Guardamangia, also run by the sisters of St Angela Merici.

“Even though our doors have closed, we still find a way to help those who need it most with food, clothes, prams and playpens, among other things. And we give from the heart.”

The sisters were among the first to take on the care of children in need.

“Back in 1958 or 1959, we sent two of our sisters from the Guardamangia home to specialise in care in the UK. At the time that was a big thing.”

The two nuns brought back with them the concept of a children’s home in the form of a flat and that was how the layout of the Guardamangia home evolved into independent flats, each with its own facilities and with children of different age groups in the care of a nun who took on the role of the mother.

“We cried... but it is not something to cry about, it is something to celebrate. Times change and the Ursulines pride themselves in keeping their pulse on society. We always look ahead. We agree that babies belong in families, even if we do get a twinge in our hearts when we see them leave,” Sr Cauchi had said.