Even though deconfinement is in full bloom here in France, the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet behind us and there are still vulnerable migrant kids, including those who are homeless, who need help. Since the beginning we have been advocating on the behalf of the 300+ unaccompanied migrants who were left to fend for themselves in Paris and the surrounding area. We’ve done this by contacting local elected officials, writing and contributing to open letters, physically going to help a group of these young migrants find housing, etc., but unfortunately not much has changed since these initial actions.
Eventually a gym or two was opened, but getting minors placed there is a somewhat arduous process that doesn’t always work, and frankly, one or two gyms is not enough to safely house over 300 homeless kids in the first place (particularly when health officials’ main recommendation to overcome this health crisis is social distancing).
Despite these difficulties, we will not be deterred. We are not giving up the fight. We are however asking you to join us.
“Every important change in our society, for the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from below, from the great mass of people.” -Edward Abbey
This post, and your contribution, will be short and sweet. Promise. We’ve purposely made it simple for you to take a couple of action steps, to help us make a difference in the lives of these young people. We are asking you to contact French elected officials to ask that they do their jobs and find safe housing for young migrants who shouldn’t be on the street anyway, but certainly not during a pandemic.
Action steps:
Step 1: Look through these pages, created to facilitate these action steps, and choose the elected official you would like to contact.
Step 2: Compose an email. You can use information we’ve already published in this open letter, or take information from this open letter that we signed with other organizations. Or, use your own words. If you don’t speak French, copy and paste. Or, send a note in English.
Step 3: Send your email. :)
Step 4: If you have Twitter (or are willing to create an account like some of our volunteers have generously done), Tweet at elected officials. Even if you haven’t used your account in a while, you can still Tweet! You can compose your own Tweet or copy and paste from our previous tweets: Tweet 1, Tweet 2, Tweet 3.
Step 5: Share this blog post and your action steps with your networks so that we can involve as many people as possible and really create change.
Voilà! That’s it. Short and sweet, just like we promised. By doing these simple action steps, you are helping us help others. We appreciate your empathy and action.
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.” -Paul Farmer