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15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 FEBRUARY 2020 NEWS a mobile phone card and other expenses. "He's looking to try and get a job in prison, three months be- fore he is released in July, but nobody is helping us. He doesn't have a school education but he can do any kind of manual work." The woman is afraid that social workers would turn up one day and take the children away. She says the two-year-old is yet to start school but that the daugh- ter does well, and is responsible and obedient. The daughter listens to her mother's pleas. She has old soul eyes as she sits straight in a chair at the family's small kitchen ta- ble. The boy is crying and play- ing with a bubble blower that contains neither water nor soap. The woman says she made contact with the Prison Fel- lowship Malta, an NGO that supports inmates and their rel- atives. Mark Vella, from the organisation, helped her by purchasing some groceries and taking the children out. Vella told MaltaToday that the husband was free from drugs. "He desperately wants a job and is free from drugs, at least that's what he says. His family is mostly all in prison but he wants to turn his life around. Nobody from the prison staff is talking to him or attempting to help him. "What broke my heart is the lit- tle girl, whom I also met. She sits there, quietly, listening, know- ing everything," Vella said, de- scribing the case as exceptional, as he described how the family are unable to afford something as basic as toilet paper. The same NGO also runs the Angel Tree Club which takes care of children aged between three and 12 who belong to pris- oners, ex-prisoners or victims of crime. The prisoner's wife tells us that her lawyer had asked for €1,700 for appearing for her husband but has only been paid €200 so far. "He calls all the time and de- mands it but I just can't afford it. I can't afford the TV bill either and they will soon take away the channels," she says. She opens the fridge, which is full of med- icine bottles and a small carton of milk. The woman looks forward to her husband getting out of pris- on because that would also mean that she could take her children out for a stroll more often. "I had to sell the car for food, so we travel by bus. Sometimes I take the children to the near- by playground. They constantly ask me for things I cannot give them. They are unhappy here and we've tried everything," she says. According to the last data ta- bled in parliament, there are 12,472 single parents caring for 17,898 children across Malta and Gozo. The woman is not a single parent by choice, but is one of them, at least up until her husband is released from Corra- dino. According to the latest EU statistics on income and living conditions, in total, there were 80,000 individuals below the risk of poverty line or 16.8% of the entire population, of which 8,000 suffer from severe mate- rial deprivation and 6,000 from low work intensity. "His family is mostly all in prison but he wants to turn his life around. Nobody from the prison staff is talking to him or attempting to help him" PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES BIANCHI