Every week for 15 years, Marianne Pernet has traveled 40 km to volunteer at the Secours populaire de Épernay (Marne), where she is treasurer. The 75-year-old former teacher travels two or three times a week, depending on her needs. But in recent weeks, rising fuel prices have made commuting more painful.
“I live in a town where there is no bus or train, so I have no choice but to take the car,” says the septuagenarian, who claims to have to refuel with 90 euros every 15 days to come. “It’s starting to suck,” he admits, even if the structure “tries to do as few trips as possible.”
Difficulties in accessing sites in rural areas
A problem of which the national secretary of Secours populaire Jean Stellittano is fully aware. “It is true that since our antennas are located in rural areas, many volunteers clearly tell us that volunteering costs them more and that it will cost them to do as much as before,” the national manager, also in charge of the organization, explains to BFMTV.com. Alpes Maritimes Federation.
The retiree from eastern France is far from the only one affected by these difficulties. At the New Aquitaine Salvation Army, “very committed volunteers, who came daily, have been forced to reduce their visits in recent months.”
low income caregivers
The observation is the same at the Red Cross or within the Emmaus communities. At La Croix Rouge in Saumur (Maine-et-Loire), “it’s starting to get complicated for some of the 90 volunteers who are further away and often have a standard income.” Discussions have also started to try to lower their rates, Adrien Lhermiteau, president of the local unit, tells BFMTV.com.
At the three Emmaüs centers in Arles, Nîmes and Alès, “around 10% of the volunteers who came from afar have stopped or reduced their frequency of weekly visits”, estimates Frédéric Piazza, co-director of the three sites, who remembers all Even that part of the mileage is tax deductible for volunteers.
“It’s something we understand very well: we know that the people who come to help are mostly modest people, who have small pensions… and some traveled 20 kilometers to come.”
More selective collection routes
The other problem refers to the rounds of collections of furniture and objects in the home. “We have 12 trucks that carry out between 5 and 8 collections a day in the Ardennes”, sometimes traveling more than 100 kilometres, emphasizes Rémi Périsot, head of the Emmaus community in Charleville-Mézières (Ardennes).
“A significant cost” for the association, which then resells these donations in its rooms at ridiculous prices.
If the number of tours has not decreased yet, Frédéric Piazza acknowledges that the community is forced to be more selective. “We try to rationalize the rounds, not waste, and prioritize quality over quantity,” he explains. For this, the Charleville site has hired a person at the reception, responsible for the pre-selection of donations. “We try to be more precise in the collection to avoid moving ‘for nothing’.”
dreaded electricity bills
But the rise in fuel prices is not the only concern of the players in the associative world. The Associative Movement, which represents more than 700,000 structures, asked last Friday for “non-discriminatory” access to state aid. The Federation of Solidarity Actors also recently sent a letter to Elisabeth Borne to sound the alarm and request the extension of the government’s tariff shield to associations.
“At this point, the provisional budgets of our associations for 2023 are not balanced if we include the reality of our expenses (…) We are mobilized to make adaptation efforts but we refuse to reduce social support in our centers to absorb these price increases “, explains to BFMTV.com Pascal Brice.
The president of the federation deplores a “scissors effect” with on the one hand the expenses that increase and on the other the income that stagnates. The Restos du Cœur, for example, are worried about seeing their electricity bills explode in the coming months.
Thierry Sarrazin, departmental director of the North, is already expecting a salty note. Unlike most Emmaus locations that don’t have heating, “the 80 distribution centers in Hauts-de-France are heated by old electric heaters,” he notes. “And in Lille alone, we have three cold rooms to store food that is getting old, they are extremely energy intensive and are between 100 and 200 m² each.”
Source: BFM TV
