In the Lot, a 100% female recycling center to find employment and “self-confidence”

With her blue work overalls and her anti-dust mask, Cynthia N'Diaye, 24, is one of the twelve employees undergoing reintegration at the Atelier des Filaos, located in Prayssac, near Cahors. VALENTINE CHAPUIS/AFP

Leaning over her work, Cynthia, employee of a recycling plant in the Lot whose objective is to bring women back to employment, applies herself to sanding the drawers of # 39;s chest of drawers that really needs it.

With her blue work overalls and her anti-dust mask, Cynthia N'Diaye, 24, is one of the twelve employees undergoing reintegration at the Atelier des Filaos, installed in Prayssac, near Cahors.

Her technical supervisor, Sandra Warnet, 39, guides her gently. After a quick sanding with an electric sander, the young woman uses sandpaper and her hand to remove the last traces of paint to reveal the grain of the wood on this piece of furniture that a client has entrusted to her.

As with the other employees, Cynthia's time on this integration project is only fleeting. Two years maximum, then each will have to use the skills and certainties gleaned here to continue their professional path.

"The most precarious"

The recycling center was created in 2022 by an association which helps victims of domestic violence in the Lot department and offers them emergency accommodation. The idea came naturally from the primary mission of this association: to give women their autonomy.

Who says autonomy, in fact says financial independence, and therefore return to employment. "The most precarious of the precarious are women", underlines Lisette Calderan, volunteer and president.

In the workshop, employees learn to repair and restyle furniture, but also to keep accounts, take inventory and manage the store. They accumulate skills, from customer relations to IT tasks.

But the main objective, "it's self-confidence, really", explains Adeline Déhais , director of the association. "When you have confidence in yourself to succeed in interviews, for me, this is the first axis. Afterwards, it is also about removing all the obstacles to employment, whether it be mobility, childcare…"

In the Lot, one of the most rural departments in France, these last two issues are crucial. In Prayssac, a town with some 2,400 inhabitants, "there is a crèche, but it is always full", says Fanny Victor, coordinator of the structure, over morning coffee. & ;quot;And in the other villages, there is nothing."

"That's life"

At the end of the morning, Nadège Heitzmann, 47, takes the wheel of the association's van to collect furniture donated by a former volunteer.

This forty-year-old with tattoos that pay tribute to her family, worked for a long time on construction sites, then health problems thwarted a reconversion, before arriving at the recycling plant on the advice of a social worker .

"I was already tinkering a lot, but alone, so on a social level, human contact, that helped me a lot. And I also made friends", she confides.

In the workshop, Marie-Ange Mendy, 41, puts the final touches to a dressing table that she completely dismantled to restore, then decorated by painting a face in particular of a woman wearing makeup on the tray, speckled with touches of color.

The hairdresser "still has her experience, her story, but is leaving for another life". For Marie-Ange, the renovation process "is an outlet, it allows us to release our emotions and start fresh". "That's why I put lots of colors, that's life.".

Under the eye of the supervisor, she refines her work with a smile. The piece of furniture, like her, emerges transfigured. She's only been here for a month but has already started to regain her confidence.

With small relapses, sometimes: "Will it sell ?", s&amp ;#39;she worries.