With his wife Clémence, they created the land in sharing, a farm that aims to make time of procedure of constructive asylum thanks to solidarity market gardening activities.
How did the idea of the Earth come in sharing?
My wife Clémence and I both wanted to work together - she is a specialist in social entrepreneurship and I conductor - but the opportunity had never been presented. This changed a few years ago when we started volunteering in the refugee camps in Paris. On weekends, we invite the guys to come spend a few days with us, with our parents in the countryside and they took pleasure in playing the spade. We realized at that time that the garden was a good field of experimentation to facilitate the insertion of asylum seekers.
How did you build the project?
We wanted to respond, through the market gardening, to the 3 issues related to the asylum application procedure: the impossibility of training or working during the procedure, a moment which is often experienced alone, and days that lack activities and goals!
In 2016, we took over an old domain in Haute-Vienne, and we settled there with Clémence and the children. We have prepared the field for a year and a half, working upstream with local institutions, meeting associations present in the area, which allowed us to forge links with a whole bunch of volunteers, who have become friends. We have benefited, we still benefit from very much daily solidarity: all our furniture for example was given to us by local people or friends, which allowed us to be ready in December 2018 and to open our place of life: the earth in sharing.
Concretely, what is it?
The land in sharing is a permaculture garden around which are built solidarity market gardening activities (under the Oacas*, as for Emmaüs), but also a place of accommodation and participatory life of 19 places where we share knowledge and know-how, such as language courses with local volunteers (fifty). The idea is that at the end of their stay, the people who live here have had an active time, better understand the language, as well as French society and, at the same time, made friends!
What does a typical day look like at home?
We all participate in collective life. The typical day is therefore punctuated by several active times.
There is the market gardening activity during which our supervisor shares his knowledge with a team of 7 or 8 guys. The skills, they already have them more or less: planting, sowing, harvesting is universal. What is interesting is above all the intercultural exchange, we do not push the same things everywhere on the planet so we share new knowledge. And then we harvest the fruit of this work to cook it afterwards!
The preparation of meals is done by team of 2 and for everyone. This allows everyone to discover the culinary specificities of each but above all to live together through the kitchen. We exchange recipes, flavors, emotions. We discover new techniques but also French by putting words on tastes. We also practice inverted cooking a lot: learning to cook rice like an Afghan changes the situation! Asylum seekers are involved in school canteens from time to time.
When they are not in the garden or in the kitchen, the guys are either in French, or in individual appointments (to prepare for after) or they take advantage of a moment of rest because it can be tiring to be immersed in another continuous culture.
What is the most surprising thing you have learned in this adventure?
The interest of the local population! The local people come to buy their vegetables on the farm, some call us to tell us that they have free time to offer for language lessons, DIY, entertainment etc. Some are also proving to be excellent teachers when they have never given their lives in their lives. It's crazy, because it has created an incredible social fabric around us: there are more than fifty volunteers and some eighty members!
What makes you most proud?
See guys who arrived a little lost and who leave with landmarks and hope. This time was active and constructive and what they learned here, the people they met, is for life!
A little ritual?
Football match, birthdays, birth of chicks, obtaining papers, etc. This place of life is above all a place where all occasions are good for partying and creating a link!
Advice to give to who would like to embark on a similar adventure?
You have to have your head on your shoulders and surround yourself well. The farm is just a support, it is thanks to the collective that we advance. We need everyone's skills to identify their limits and thus go beyond them with the help of others!
A souvenir in jar?
The jars remind us of the beautiful moments of summer. When we open a preserver in winter, we remember of course the harvests, but especially the moment of preparation, the recipe, which we find with this "wahou" taste!