• After your first mission in the Ivory Coast during the summer 2009, you went to Mali last winter as a mission leader, and are planning once again to go back next summer. What motivates you to go on these Coup de Pouce missions?

The Coup de Pouce missions are organised under a well-defined framework: to provide financial, logistical and human assistance on a one-off basis to local NGOs, in order to help them carry out their long-term projects related to issues of empowerment, education or health. The Coup de Pouce NGO is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and its tried-and-tested concept has by now demonstrated its success.

What motivates me is the taste for adventure, travel and encounters, along with the pragmatic nature of the initiatives. My conviction was definitely forged during my first assignment, where we built a maternity hospital in the Ivory Coast, and more specifically at the exact time when we filled in the foundations, representing the rooting of the project. A powerful symbol for me: helping pregnant women give life, in the best possible health conditions, is something that gives real meaning to your travels!

• What key qualities are needed to be a mission leader?

A mission leader is a kind of entrepreneur: he needs to make sure that the job under his responsibility will be completed when he will leave. He ensures that the necessary means and resources required to run the job site smoothly are available to the crews, and assigns the tasks in a way that will be conducive to create team cohesion. He also acts as the guardian of the NGO’s values. So you need to like taking on responsibilities, have charisma, be dynamic and reactive, and available to listen to your team. Before, during and after the assignment, the mission leader acts as an interface between the volunteers, the NGO, the tour operator, the local partner organisation and the job site supervisor, and centralises all financial and administrative aspects.As he well knows the team, he is also able to recommand some potential future mission leaders.

• What benefits do you derive from your commitment with Coup de Pouce, in your personal and daily life?

A lot of shared pleasure: we give joy and hope to the beneficiary communities when we lend a hand; the smiles and thanks you get in return are rewards that remain branded in your mind for ever. Beyond the collective aspect, the trust shown to me is also very gratifying and self-fulfilling.

When you accept the assignment, you also accept to take over responsibility for a team of people from frequently diverse cultural and socio-professional backgrounds. The success of the project will depend on the quality of the bonds woven with the team, the NGO, the local partner associations and the local communities… In just two weeks, you can experience incredibly rich encounters! It’s a genuine concentrate of real life!

North/South exchanges are not necessarily uneven, quite the contrary. Going off the beaten trails of conventional tourism, you start thinking out of the box and beat down preconceived ideas: when I return to France, my outlook on people, climate disasters or immigration is different…

• You discovered Coup de Pouce through the PPR Foundation. What does it mean for you?

We rarely have the opportunity to reconcile passion with obligation. Via its Foundation, PPR demonstrates its commitment in favour of major causes, invests money and represents a moral backer, just as important for the NGOs. I am proud to belong to a company showing solidarity, social responsibility and concern for development, education and cultural diversity. It has enable me to become engaged and given me a way to donate a little of my time, to find self-fulfilment while helping people in southern countries.  

• Through your experience in the field, you contributed to projects in favour of women. What inspiration have you drawn from the women you met in this context?

What emerges clearly from each of them is their dignity, combined with a boundless joy for life in spite of their daily difficulties, along with an infinite generosity. As an example, during the construction of the maternity in the Ivory Coast, the pregnant women always insisted on carrying at least one cinder block themselves, as a symbolic contribution to the project.

Last winter in Mali, the project involved the construction of a workshop for the women in the village of Katibougou to be used for their production of shea butter, dried fruit and jams, distributed via a fair trade network. The village women were absolutely intent on earning an independent living.

In my view, one of the key areas to be developed is undoubtedly education: all too often, boys only have access to schooling, while, paradoxically, private initiatives or micro-credit actions are largely driven by the women. They should have a stronger influence in decision-making.

In conclusion, I would like to address all my fellow PPR employees: leaving on a solidarity mission is a powerful experience. So don’t hesitate! Find out about it, register and let destiny be your guide!