We wanted to come back to a beautiful Christmas initiative launched by Aude De Carvalho, Director of La Marelle (FLAM Primary school), aiming at fighting against the isolation of elderly people. This initiative was a huge success and will be repeated next year.
After seeing her grandmother suffer from isolation in a state nursing home, Aude had the idea of launching a solidarity project for Christmas in her primary school. The idea was to ask each student to prepare and write a Christmas card to an elderly person suffering from isolation (and whom the student does not know).
Aude contacted a number of institutions that care for the elderly, and all were enthusiastic with this idea. The only problem is that these institutions had a total of 1,900 residents, whereas La Marelle primary school has 150 pupils.
Aude then had the idea of collaborating with other FLAM primary schools, in the UK and elsewhere in the world.
And the challenge was met. The 1900 cards were sent, thanks to the solidarity of 30 FLAM primary schools, 3 English schools, 2 French nursery schools, and about fifteen individuals. The cost of sending the Christmas cards from the UK was covered by the Parapluie FLAM (France Langue Maternelle) association, which La Marelle primary school is a member.
Some families included photos, drawings and other small gifts in the envelopes. A pen-pal project between the elderly residents and the students is underway.
A big congratulations to everyone for this great example of solidarity.
