Toulouse: an entire school is mobilizing for the family of a student who sleeps on the sidewalk
The parents of students from Fabre primary school gathered this Tuesday morning to support the family of a young student, on the street since February. They launched an online kitty to fund temporary accommodation.
The parent delegates of the Fabre elementary school, in the Carmes district, organized this Tuesday, March 29 a “solidarity breakfast” to support the family of a young pupil educated in the school and on the street since the month of February. In CM1 class, this 10-year-old girl currently lives in a tent near Empalot, with her 12-year-old older sister, her two older brothers, 21 and 23, and their parents. “This Afghan family lived until 2018 in Iran where the four children were born. Their dad worked in a consulate in Afghanistan and had a visa that was renewed every year. When he reached retirement age, his visa was not renewed. He didn’t want to come back to his country of origin, which was in the middle of a war,” explains Charlotte, a parent of a student.
This Afghan family applied for asylum
Arrived in France in 2018, the family filed a first asylum application in Lille which was refused. She then left for Belgium from where she was sent back to finally join Toulouse in February with the hope of an appeal. So far, she has only found a stretch of sidewalk where to set up tents. “We were alerted by the headmistress of the school. The family calls 115 every day, to no avail. Temperatures will be very cold from Friday. A dignified and sustainable accommodation solution must be found by the prefecture to shelter her, ”insists Thomas Maréchal of the FCPE Haute-Garonne. To respond to the emergency and finance a few nights in hotels, the parents of student delegates launched an online kitty on Papayoux Solidarité which has already collected nearly 500 euros. “I learned of this family’s situation in February when the little girl was enrolled in school. His older brothers, who speak French very well, had the courage to explain to me that they slept in tents, explains Catherine Camier, director of the Fabre elementary school. It regularly happens that families are confronted with accommodation problems but they don’t dare to say so”.