Children and youth
There are 13 Maltesers’ children day-care centres in Lithuania, where 350 children from families experiencing difficulties (financial and social), with learning difficulties, difficulties in fitting in at school, behavioural difficulties, growing up in a single-parent family, going through a crisis (e.g. parents’ divorce), attend daily. Most often, we learn about these children from the municipalities, social workers, police juvenile inspectors, and parish people. Children come to day-care centres after school hours. Here they receive free meals, develop their social, communication and personal hygiene skills, and are introduced to common human and Christian values. Day-care centres provide help not only to children but also to families – they talk to parents about psychological and social issues, and work together to find the most appropriate ways to help the child. The centres are also open during the summer.
In Vyžuonos, Utena district, there is also an open youth space – the only place in the town where teenagers can enjoy meaningful leisure time and self-realisation. Most of the visitors come directly from the Maltesers children day care centre, where young people aged between 14 and 29 gather. The focus is on young people with care experiences or from difficult backgrounds who, for various reasons, do not have the opportunity or do not want to participate in common activities, live with the label of “bad guy”, do not have the support of their family and do not have a bright orientation in life.
In order to provide continuity of assistance to the young person, Maltesers provide the service of escorting the young person from the orphanage to the independent life (the service is provided from the age of 18). At the age of 18, they leave the care system and are left alone to settle into life. This is the time when an adult accompaniment service is needed, where a specially trained coordinator helps the young person who lacks independence to find a place to live, choose a profession, start a job, and supports them with a wide range of domestic issues. Maltesers is one of the strongest providers of this service, being the only one operating in 3 different municipalities (Telšiai, Marijampolė and Kaunas).
To support children and young people in need, the “Bolder to Life” donation campaign is carried out in August-September to raise funds for the development and quality of activities aimed at young people.
Galery
