Together, we exist.

A few years ago I was spending hours on the phone with Patrick. At the time he had been living on the street and was looking for a refuge from the violence and arbitrary treatment that people have to endure when they don’t have a home. He could not see himself in the shelter system - too much control over him on one hand, and too much violence on the other. When he was too exhausted from facing the violence and insecurity of  living in the street, he found ways to rest at night, for a few hours, on a chair in the storage unit where his belongings were put after he had been evicted. What he did was illegal so he had to stay hidden. During this period, just a few people who he could talk to really knew of his situation.

People having to face situations of extreme precarity over a long period of time are sometimes so isolated that no one really knows about what they go through and endure. Without people determined to be there for them, who will recognize the efforts they make? I learned over the years that Patrick and others experiencing poverty are so often the very first ones: 

“In the storage, I gave some money to one of my friends who is living there too, and I shared my food with him. My friends are like brothers to me. It is not just money that will help us to get out of poverty, it is also being there for others when they need me.” 

In solidarity,

Guillaume Charvon
National Director