Toulouse: discover the new Emmaüs center in the completely renovated Château de Ginestous
After rehabilitating it, Emmaüs is opening a new center at the Château de Ginestous in Sesquières. While preserving the place, the association has provided spaces for accommodation, recycling, but also sales, in this historic setting.
At Emmaüs, there are sales every day. In search of bargains, Toulouse residents rushed to the brand new center of Sesquières, which opened this Friday, July 1. Difficult to make your way through the new warehouse that serves as a point of sale. Customers are piling up and the car park, like the cash registers, is full to bursting.
Between the sofas, the guitars and the multitude of objects, Nilo Fernandez manages his teams. He is the manager of this brand new Emmaus centre. “It’s the first day of opening. It’s necessary to be vigilant. In this place, everything is centralized. On a set of activities that goes from recycling, to repair and sale”, explains Nilo Fernandez.
“This space makes it possible to create a living space”
The manager doesn’t have a second. He must take care of the various requests of the customers. The brand new Emmaus center in Sesquière is much more than a place of collection. In addition to the various warehouses planned, the site is based in the park of the Château de Ginestous. A remarkable but also very functional place that allows the association to carry out various activities.
“It met our needs. Our mission is to support as many people as possible. This space makes it possible both to create a place to live, with accommodation, but also a working environment,” says Anaïs Shili, coordinator of all the Emmaüs in Toulouse.
A very functional site
The center brings together studio-type dwellings in the gardens as well as the Château de Ginestous which serves as a collective space and two warehouses intended for sale and repair. “It’s a real erasure of power to bring together housing, places of integration and the store. We’ve been asking for a frame like this for years. Today, we have it, ”admits Nilo Fernandez between two requests from customers.
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In Toulouse, Emmaüs revives the forgotten castle of Ginestous
The renovation of the Château de Ginestous and the creation of sales and recycling areas required a major financing plan. For this, the Emmaus teams have been able to count on various aids. The municipality and the metropolis had to put their hands in their pockets. But it is mainly thanks to donations and the work of the “companions” that the project in Sesquière was able to see the light of day. “We, what we are looking for, are donations of different objects. It’s a whole solidarity project. It makes it possible to recycle and renovate them, in paid work for the “companions”, then after to resell them”, concludes Nilo Fernandez.