Apart from our yearly Pilgrimage to Lourdes we provide many other fun activities for young volunteers to get involved in as well as numerous opportunities for our disabled pilgrims to enjoy time away from home. Every year after Lourdes we hold a small pilgrimage to Walsingham in Norfolk, each year proving to be more and more of a success. We also hold holiday camps for young children with behavioral disorders at Worth Abbey and at Mill-on-the-Brue each summer. Our other big event is the International Holiday Camp which this summer was hosted in the UK, prompting the OMV to raise a staggering quarter of a million pounds in order for us to hold it here. We take pride in having a great range of events with one sure to suit everyone!

The OMV is heavily involved in overseas work as well as activities in the UK. We have sent out teams to work in Brazil, Nepal and Serbia and provided grants for people to work in Costa Rica, Salvador, Tanzania and Cambodia. We also provide volunteers for the Mission of Charity homes in Romania &, Calcutta and the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin. Additionally, we sent a team to Haiti following the devastating earthquake in January.

We are an interactive organisation and we try hard to keep our members in contact throughout the year. The White Knights Ball, held every January at the Grosvenor House Hotel, is now one of the biggest yearly organised balls held in London and it is our chief fundraiser for the year. We also host monthly reunions with Mass and drinks as well as Autumn, Christmas, and Easter reunions. Our revamped newsletter The Malteser further serves to keep members up to date on the latest OMV news.

More and more events are taking place every year to maintain and promote the growth of our great family at the OMV. Last summer we saw the first OMV classical music concert, raising around ₤1000, and next summer we hope to throw our very first OMV summer party! We were also delighted to be able to organise a pilgrimage to Hyde Park this September to see The Holy Father himself!

The OMV continues to grow and develop in new directions whilst maintaining all of the original beliefs and philosophies that its founders intended it to stand for. Please join our family here at the OMV and become a part of our many fantastic events and growing fundraising projects!

We have two principle aims:

• To provide for people suffering from a range of debilitating illnesses or from social exclusion and offer them the chance to enjoy a break from their normal environment; whether that be a hospital, special school or even their own home.
• To provide young people between 17 and 29 with the opportunity to gain valuable experience of working with people with disabilities or social behavioral problems.

Founded in 1974, the OMV's work is financed entirely from the voluntary contributions of our members and friends and from funds raised during the course of the year.

Perhaps the worst aspect of physical disability is the frustration of being unable to accomplish tasks that most people do not even think about. When you have to rely on someone else to clean your teeth, take you to the lavatory or cut your food up for you, your self-respect can evaporate.

The Order of Malta Volunteers (OMV) is an organisation of young people who dedicate some of their time to helping disabled people and those terminally ill. It is an important organisation which provides spiritual guidance for young people between 17 and 29, educating them as they embark on their adult lives to embrace and show kindness to all those they meet along the way in the true spirit of Christianity. The OMV crucially gives young people the opportunity to ease the pain and hurt of people living with illness or those suffering from social exculsion.