Last week, the Ministry for Social Accommodation, in collaboration with the Ministry for Inclusion, announced a €320,000 project to turn a dilapidated home in Siġġiewi into a state-of-the-art respite care home for children with autism and other disabilities, aged five and 14.

It is hoped that, in addition to benefitting residents, the home will also help their families. Fitzgerald said that his two teenage boys attend Hila, a similar centre in Mosta, which has significantly improved his family’s quality of life.

“I can only speak positively about respite centres, it has worked a lot for us as a family,” Fitzgerald continued. “At the beginning it was quite hard. It feels like you’re abandoning your children, like you’re not capable of taking care of them, but we wanted this to work so that our children can integrate into society.”

At a respite centre, professionals help guests in a number of areas, including their independent living skills. The latest project in Siġġiewi will also include a number of sensory and multi-purpose rooms as well as assistive technology equipment and facilities.

“They do a lot of activities and work with them a lot on self-dependent skills,” Fitzgerald said. “As a family, it gives us a boost and helps us deal with a lot of stress and pressure. The respite centre gives us an extra boost for ourselves,” he said.

Guests are able to spend as little as a few hours to several days at the respite centre, with Fitzgerald’s children spending 15 days at the home at one time.

“When we first took them there, we used to phone every two hours to see how they are doing, but nowadays we’re so confident that we don’t phone. We know they are in good health and our children go there with smiles on their faces,” he said.

“We went from a demotivated family before taking them to respite to becoming a motivated family. And now we look forward to the coming days.”

The new respite centre in Siġġiewi will be completed in April 2023.

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