Context: families in a precarious situation wishing to regain a place in society.

The first Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul arrived in Agen in 1686 at the request of Bishop Mascaron to serve the sick in hospitals. Later in 1836, an Agen resident donated a large house (called "Miséricorde") to the Daughters of Charity to distribute meals and care to the city's poor in their homes.

When this house was closed in 1971, the Daughters of Charity moved out of town to the city of Rodrigues, still under construction. Living in the midst of the population, they became involved in neighborhood associations that served the most needy by providing clothing, food aid, housing assistance and individual accompaniment. They also work in partnership with Secours Catholique, Emmaüs, Secours Populaire, ACAT and Alliance (support for people with serious illnesses).

Since 2006, the immigrant population in the Agen metropolitan area has grown strongly (+ 35% in ten years) and represents 12.4% of the population of the metropolitan area (compared to 9.4% nationally).

On the strength of their encounters with many families of diverse origins, the sisters were able to measure how much these people lived with a feeling of permanent insecurity and suffered from not being able to provide a family balance for their children. These families live in unstable conditions due to the lack of suitable housing; they are taken in in the parish's cathechism rooms or live in tents.

Three sisters therefore decided to create the association "Entr'AidEToit" to accompany these people or families in very precarious situations and help them to have access to housing, an essential factor in reintegrating and regaining security and autonomy.

To help these people not to sink and to keep their dignity, the association supports them by facilitating:

• the administrative procedures, in order to find what they need for housing and to live decently.
• the search for accommodation made available free of charge but temporarily

While they continue to mobilize with the municipality to raise funds, the sisters have also managed to benefit from the support of businesses, shops and artisans who work alongside them at the local level.

The sisters are committed to respecting the autonomy and freedom of belief or origin of the people they help. Their only goal is to help them keep their dignity and find a place in society. This is one of the reasons why they ask for the beneficiaries' own contribution to the fitting out of the premises and other minor works.

The objective of the project: to renovate and equip uninhabited housing.

Landlords have agreed to make available unoccupied housing to provide accommodation for families or single people. Agreements and best practice guidelines have been signed in order to provide them with guarantees in response to their spirit of generosity and solidarity.

However, these homes sometimes need some renovation and installation of domestic equipment.

The priority of the next few months is to fit out and restore an empty house by repainting and repainting the tapestries: for a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and corridor. In the bathroom, removal of a bidet for the installation of a washing machine.

It is easy to mobilize at first the members and volunteers of the association "Entr'AidEToit" to carry out the necessary work. These are minor cleanliness and maintenance work aimed at improving the habitability of the entrusted places.

The support of Rosalie's Projects will allow her to contribute to the financing of the costs related to the fitting out and equipment of this house to then make it available to families in a precarious situation rather than leaving it closed.  

This occupation of the premises will be temporary, while the beneficiaries find a social, family and professional balance in order to integrate.

In order to limit as much as possible the dependency between the association and the persons accommodated, the beneficiaries will be accompanied to become autonomous as soon as possible. As soon as a family obtains enough resources to pay a rent thanks to their work, they will become tenants themselves. A young apprentice carpenter, without family, already benefits from our support.

Beneficiaries: 7 families and single people who have been waiting for housing for several months.

• A father, a journalist by training and his 3 children, living in a squat since their arrival from Africa.
• A couple with 2 children temporarily housed in a parish home and who have lost all social ties.
• A couple with 3 children whose eldest child is autistic. Arriving in Agen, this family is waiting to be regularized and must unfortunately leave the accommodation in which they currently live.
• A family who after spending the winter in a car is accommodated for the moment in a parish hall: 1 elderly person, a couple and 3 children including a newborn child.

We count on you to accompany these families,

the redesign of the house will allow us to provide them with a decent home.

A big THANK YOU for your commitment alongside the most disadvantaged!