I recently had the honour to attend a social breakfast meeting entitled ‘Neżisti jew Ngħix?’, which was held at the new premises of Caritas Malta, in Ħamrun.
This event saw the gathering of active citizens from various walks of life who are committed to generate more social awareness on the most vulnerable strata in our society.
We explained how we care about our fellow men who may be on the brink of any one of life’s edges. But we should not stop at simply caring, our task is to immediately work for more social justice in our country.
We had the opportunity to present various real-life situations which highlighted different experiences from unique individuals. Personal statements such as “I realise I have nothing when I look at my life”, “My children grew up without me realising this” and “I feel set aside and lonely” leave you heartbroken and speechless.
These are all true situations which reflect the daily burden some people have to endure. Such statements challenge me to continuously aspire to make more of a difference through politics.
As a country, we cannot turn a blind eye to these heartaches. The guest speakers made this all too clear.
Each life is precious and, as a society, we should strive to leave no one behind. The shift from an individualistic to altruistic thinking is the key driver for more social justice. We need to speak the language of the suffering to help them lift themselves up within a climate enriched with solidarity.
Together with Opposition leader Bernard Grech, I was pleased to present the first part of the Nationalist Party’s vision for a socially just Malta. This was presented in the form of four proposals.
The first proposal is to seek to understand the true nature of poverty and be able to address it. We propose to achieve this by setting up an autonomous and independent structure, ‘Poverty Watch’, to be composed of NGOs and social experts and which will measure poverty and devise ways to prevent and reduce poverty.
A Nationalist government would also be revamping and updating the National Strategy for Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion, which will be reviewed biannually and not every 10 years, as is the case with this government.
The second proposal is the establishment of a minimum living income. This is something I have been speaking about on numerous occasions. The implementation of a living income would secure an adequate income for all so that everyone can carry on with their life in dignity.
The intention is not to introduce a living income through burdening taxpayers but we are looking at a financial model where the minimum income will be enough to offset the cost of living and within an environment where employers can also gain through added value from employees.
The third proposal expresses solidarity with the homeless. There are approximately 300 people without a permanent home in Malta and Gozo. Therefore, we are proposing to develop incentives for vacated properties to serve as shelters for homeless people. This would be achieved in agreement between property owners, NGOs and the government.
The fourth proposal is to promote more corporate social responsibility in the interest of the common good.
The social breakfast meeting was deemed a success and has managed to provoke thoughts about the social difficulties in the country. I thank each of the keynote speakers for their participation and their life contributions to fundamental social causes around us.
On a final note, my esteemed thanks go to Caritas Malta, which welcomed us in their home to help us project the message for social justice.
Ivan Bartolo, PN spokesperson on social housing and poverty