Mellieħa Activity Club For Children With Disabilities Faces Closure After Funds Run Dry Amid COVID-19
An activity club for children with disabilities is fighting to remain open after COVID-19 dried up their funding.
“We need the community to help keep our centre alive,” Andy Buhagiar, the manager behind non-profit Embrace Diversity told Lovin Malta.
“The children love to attend our daily sessions. They’ve formed such great friendships here – we’d all be heartbroken if we had to stop.”
Embrace Diversity is a holistic learning centre for children with different disabilities that opened in 2018. It offers a myriad of adapted activities like arts and crafts, gardening, spa sessions, aromatherapy, cooking, water-play and sports.
“Our aim is to help our clients learn, hone their skills and grow in a stimulating environment,” Buhagiar said.
The Embrace team also organise regular exciting outings and sleepovers to help with separation anxiety from their parents and help them gain independence.
Currently based in Mellieħa, the non-profit must prepare to shift their activities elsewhere because their rent contract ends early this year.
However, they couldn’t host their usual funding activities in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and now, Embrace Diversity is facing an uncertain future.
“We’re determined to keep it running because parents and children depend on us,” Buhagiar stressed.
In order to make up for lost funding, Buhagiar set up a funding page to help them move into their new place and continue giving their services.
“We always work with what limited resources we have and the small donations we receive throughout the year, but this year will be the hardest ever. Every cent counts for us.”
If you’d like to donate to keep the learning centre open, you can find their gofundme page here.
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