- The president of a humanitarian NGO has published a book denouncing the pressures suffered during the confinement to "stop helping".
- His NGO, called GSCF, has participated in numerous missions in disaster-stricken countries.
- "The Covid-19, in France, is the largest humanitarian operation that we have carried out since our creation in 1999", says this fireman from Pas-de-Calais.
After the internal report of the fire brigade, it is another fire soldier who goes up to the front. It is in the title of founding president of a northern NGO, specialized in humanitarian aid that the lieutenant of SDIS 62 speaks. In a book, La Mascarade démasquée , which has just appeared *, Thierry Velu tells how the GSCF (French disaster relief group) had to fight against the State to fulfill its humanitarian missions.
How did the idea for this book come about?
Our NGO found itself in an unprecedented situation. At the start of confinement, we started to provide free protective equipment, throughout France, to various people who needed it. And instead of being helped by the state, we were forbidden to do so. It pissed me off. I decided to write this book to testify to the lack of common sense shown by the authorities.
What happened ?
We are used to intervening in disaster-affected countries to help the population there. We also regularly deal with the fate of the homeless. When we started to prepare for the Covid-19 epidemic in February, we never thought of helping France. At the outset, we imagined rather intervening with developing countries and only with homeless people.
Coronavirus: our teams in the field https://t.co/zZ90CCc67S
- GSCF (@humanitairegscf) March 17, 2020Finally, it was in France that the needs arose…
Exactly. From the first day of confinement, we were bombarded with messages about the lack of masks and hydroalcoholic gel. We had orders and we had stocks. We have made parcels for hospitals, doctors, structures that bring food in nursing homes or homestays. And after four or five days, we received a phone call from the Pas-de-Calais prefecture asking us to stop and give our stock to the Regional Health Agency (ARS).
What have you refused to do?
We are an independent NGO. We distribute wisely. We have never been under such pressure that has gone so far as to contact my employer while I do this on my free time. The prefecture threatened to ban us from driving because we were not in the public interest. So that we could have worked in perfect collaboration. I do not understand. We were asked to stop helping people. It was ridiculous and totally devoid of common sense.
Were you able to continue your help anyway?
We donated 4,000 masks to the ARS, which allowed us to continue distributing. It was very complicated. The requests came from everywhere. Our finances are now in the red. It is the largest humanitarian operation we have carried out since our creation in 1999.
How do you explain that?
There has been a total lack of preparation by our leaders. To understand this, I retraced a chronology of the facts in the book, by doing a press review. We forgot a lot. For example, the health adviser to the president of the republic resigned at the end of January to help her husband in a municipal campaign. Emmanuel Macron remained for a month without a health advisor. While the virus had already caused a death in France.
You violently denounce this lack of preparation ...
There are many examples. 5,000 Italian supporters were allowed to come to Lyon when the epidemic claimed thousands of lives in Italy. We also opened an Agriculture Fair. At the beginning of March, when the World Health Organization (WHO) asked to apply the barrier gestures, the president encouraged the citizens to continue to go out normally. It doesn't have to happen again.
* The book is available on the website www.gscf.fr
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- Confinement
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- Humanitarian aid
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus