Avotra Alsace, what a great adventure!
Nathalie describes a good cause.
Created in March 2021, the Avotra Alsace association supports the Avotra orphanage in Madagascar: around 200 abandoned children, orphans, street children, are taken care of and helped in the areas of food, medicine, health, and education. The President of Avotra Alsace, my friend Doris Jacky, stayed there in 2016 giving her time and her help and came back with the strong will to continue at a distance, from Hunspach, a small village in Alsace in the north-east of France. She is helped by active members and volunteers, with or without a link with the Big Island, following a humanitarian mission or trip, an adoption process, or quite simply sensitized to the Malagasy cause. She offered me the position of secretary of the association, which I accepted with joy.
The association then embarked on the opening of a solidarity shop called “Seconde main”, specializing in the sale of second-hand items: men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, jewellery, toys, books, CDs, DVDs, tableware, household linen, small household appliances.
What an adventure! We worked with a few volunteers to redevelop the old hardware store in the village: painting, replacing windows, repairing locks, new electrical installation, fitting out the premises with donated furniture … transforming without investing too much because the shop is ephemeral! One team was responsible for sorting the items and putting them on the shelves, while another team was responsible for organizing the store and scheduling the sales staff. On May 27, 2021, despite the current epidemic health situation, the store opened and welcomed its first customers.
And what a success since! Everyone is delighted to be able to get rid of objects and clothes that have become unnecessary and bulky, to donate goods that are sometimes so dear to their hearts, to hunt and buy inexpensively, to contribute to a good cause.
We also offer entertainment, such as knitting, sewing, crafts, games, storytelling, musical moments, snacks, and non-alcoholic drinks. Because the Avotra Alsace association is more than a solidarity store, it is also an inter-generational meeting place.
Our operation is at the same time social, united, economic, and ecological!
The children of the Avotra orphanage in Antananarivo have already benefited greatly, all profits from sales being donated to them. What seems to us to be a drop of water is, in reality, for them an ocean! And that’s what keeps us going…
Members of “Our Brida” can download the French & German translation sheet. Go to the “All Courses Section” and select Phrases & Words.
