Loneliness in Dingli: Caritas study warns of village's solitude problem

As Christmas approaches and families prepare to spend the most wonderful time of year with their nearest and dearest, a Caritas study has shone a light on the reality of people living in solitude.

Indeed, Caritas' qualitative study on the Dingli community – the third in a series of studies on specific towns and villages – revealed that loneliness and solitude are some of the gravest social problems in the idyllic village. 

"More than half of the elderly people surveyed who live by themselves told us that they experience solitude problems," Caritas director Leonid McKay told a press conference. "Such problems don't often show from the outside, but they kept emerging throughout this study."

Similarly, Dingli's Archpriest Eucharist Zammit warned that while Dingli's beauty may give off the illusion that problems are non-existent, the reality is strikingly different when one enters people's homes.  

McKay used the occasion to announce details of a Christmas Day lunch that Caritas is organising for people living in solitude. It will be held in a tent inside the Curia's courtyard in Floriana, and attendants will receive support throughout the meal. 

"The aim is to provide a family environment to people whose feelings of isolation are exacerbated during Christmastime," he said. "It will be successful if no one feels the need to turn up [as they would have another place to spend Christmas at], but the truth is that many people are already calling us to ask for details."

Caritas' research study on Dingli – in collaboration with Dingli's Parish – was spearheaded by Caritas research officer Maria Adele Farrugia and carried out by 44 trained volunteers who personally knocked on the doors of 156 randomly sampled Dingli households, including 50 beneficiaries of EU food aid, in the first quarter of 2015. Out of those, 109 households agreed to participate in the research. The average age of the respondents was 50, and the majority had a secondary level of education.

Unlike the other two surveyed towns of St Julian's and Qormi, the study didn’t identify any specific zones in Dingli associated with poverty, which McKay attributed to the lack of social housing in the village. 

Indeed, the financial problems faced by the majority of surveyed households amounted to financial stress, rather than absolute material poverty.

However, 17 families admitted that they cannot afford four out of the nine the essential everyday objects that have been listed by the National Statistics Office, while a few individuals said they experienced, or know families who have experienced, substance abuse problems.