With the Gem Cèzâme, mutual aid goes out and about in the Rhône Gard

Adhérents, membres du CA, Cédric Kruger, tous motivés par ce projet qui se concrétise dès février. C. C. – MIDIL LIBRE

L'association de Bagnols-sur-Cèze porte le projet "Gem ma campagne", un groupe d'entraide mutuelle itinérant, qui va commencer en février à Pont-Saint-Esprit.  

The Gem Cèzâme (mutual aid group) of Bagnols, an association dedicated to users or former users of psychiatry, has forty members. Together, they build activity programs and other events, for this, they have a house where they meet. They want to go further in mutual aid. In recent months, a traveling mutual aid group project has matured, entitled "Gem my countryside".

The idea germinated in the mind of Aurore Fournet, the structure's salaried facilitator for ten years. The members seized it as well as Cédric Kruger, former presenter at Mosaïque en Cèze. Aurore and Cédric have been working on its creation for months.

All municipalities affected by the project   

Due to mobility issues, "Members or former members who live in the villages no longer come to the Gem de Bagnols". This situation has been amplified with the health crisis, which has created its share of anxieties. The project aims to "fight against isolation, share on psychological health issues and beyond, societal and environmental anxiety". It will be established in most of the municipalities in the territory of the Agglo du Gard rhodanien, which has been divided into four sectors.

Sector 1 is launching the formula in February. Every Monday, Cédric Kruger will leave aboard a minibus, from village to village1, to pick up those who have registered, as far as Pont-Saint-Esprit, where the group will benefit from a local to the Social Life Space from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For activities, outings, games, walks… The schedule will be built gradually with the participants. From March or April, Cédric Kruger will do the same, on Wednesdays, in Laudun-l’Ardoise (sector 2, eleven communes).

When funding allows, the weekly meeting will take place in two other sectors. The "Gem my campaign" was scheduled to land in 2025 in and around Sabran. The funding of the Gem Cèzâme will not allow the long-term financing of   "Gem my campaign". So Cédric Kruguer and Aurore Fournet put together files for potential financiers. "We are calling on patrons to finance the minibus. To begin, the Gem lends its own. It's a great project, we're waiting for the launch to see how it will unfold", testifies Sandra, treasurer of the Bagnolaise association.

In the long term, explains Aurore Fournet, "the Gem my campaign" could become a Gem in its own right with its internal regulations, its own association…", end of 2026, when this mutual aid tour will be well established. Participants will be sponsored and supported by the Gem Bagnolais actors who experience this beneficial mutual aid on a daily basis.

(1) Sector 1: in Pont-Saint-Esprit, for residents of Pont, Orsan, Codolet, Chusclan, Vénéjan, Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts, Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Alexandre, Carsan, Saint-Laurent-de -Carnols, Saint-Paulet-de-Caisson and Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas. Contact 07 66 25 83 05. ; gemmacampagne@gmail.com. 

An exhibition also traveling from February

It was unveiled during the Singuliers… Plurals. The Gem Cèzâme exhibition "All the same, all different" is traveling throughout 2024. It is composed of texts and photographs taken by a professional, Pauline Collus, who intervened within the structure. The members agreed to allow themselves to be photographed, sessions which allowed work on self-esteem. In February, the exhibition will be visible at the Break in Bagnols; in March at the Bise’Arts boutique in Bagnols; in April at the 4-Chemins cellar in Laudun; in October in the hall of the headquarters of the Agglo du Gard rhodanien; in December and January 2025 at the Laudun media library. The Gem is awaiting responses from other municipalities for the months missing from this list.

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