Naila Gautier is president of the organization Les Mamans du Cœur, a partner organization of Trustbuilding Program project OUI ACT in France. She also works as a facilitator for children-parent workshops. We asked her work and how the collaboration with OUI ACT benefits the families in her community.
What does Les Mamans du Cœur do?
The organization has different divisions:
- Dialogue and exchange - with workshops and projects around different forms of influence that particularly influence sensitive neighborhoods, like for example: drugs, social networks, sectarian movements and radicalism.
- Humanitarian solidarity - to develop solidarity between residents. Using this solidarity to help homeless people, like with the daily distribution of unsold bread from the bakery, weekly distribution of water in a shelter without drinking water, occasional distribution of meals in shelters without a kitchen, and distributing meals in the region of Paris region for homeless people in the streets.
- Culture - intergenerational activities in open-air in different neighborhoods to create bonds of respect between younger and older residents. This in order to increase the livability in the neighborhood.
- Active citizenship - in order to stimulate active citizenship, we organize several activities, like: neighborhood parties, recycling workshops, setting up a communal garden with edible plants, and cleaning workshops for the whole neighborhood.
- Emergency - we have set up and run an emergency number for people living in shelters that face different needs, like food or clothing shortage. There are nurses volunteering to help these people in need.
Who do you work with?
I work with people of every age, origin and background, who live in troubled neighborhoods in Trappes, which is a suburban city near Paris. Also, we collaborate with other organizations with similar activities in the region, in order to be more efficient and effective.
