Watch: 68-Year Woman Forced Into Prostitution In Order To Eat, Says PN Candidate Who Runs Paola Soup Kitchen
As a volunteer who helps run a soup kitchen in Paola, PN candidate Ivan Bartolo has come face to face with people in their most desperate moments.
One which sticks out in his mind is a 68-year-old woman who was forced into a life of prostitution in order to have enough money to buy food.
“She did it in order to eat, not to buy some luxury goods,” Bartolo said. “When she came to me, I lowered my eyes and didn’t know what to say.”
Bartolo’s story is one of several sad and eye-opening stories of poverty in Malta published in Ħerġin, a new Nationalist Party video that shines a light on individual candidates.
Candidate James Aaron Ellul said he knows of a mother who lives in a basement with her son and has to beg for help to buy school items for him, and MP Karl Gouder said he met an elderly couple who lives in a home with only an old sink and cooker.
Robert Arrigo said he met a couple who have to get by on a pension of €460 a month and whose Christmas Eve lunch was a mere packet of crisps between them, while Jason Azzopardi expressed his shock at how expensive basic groceries have become.
An emotional Julie Zahra said she knows of an elderly couple struggling to take care of their two young granddaughters, stepping in for their daughter who is at Mount Carmel.
“You realise how many people need help and how much poverty there is out there,” she said. “I can’t turn my head and not care about them.”
How serious of a problem do you think poverty is in Malta?
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