With its book fair, this Alençon association is a ray of sunshine for precarious families

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Saturday October 12 and Sunday October 13, 2024, the Rayon de Soleil association, in Alençon, held the 43^e edition of its book fair, the proceeds of which aim tohelping families in great difficulty.

“The recipes help a lot”

The Rayon de Soleil association has taken over the reins of this charity book fair four years ago to another association, Amnesty International.

The principle? Individuals donate books the day before the show, volunteers sort the books according to their wear and tear then put them on the shelves, along with unsold items from previous years.

We have 150 to 200 regular donors and the proceeds from this show help us a lot.

The book fair is main source of income of Rayon de Soleil, which also organizes a concert in the spring and sells jams in December.

Housing: first battle

Born within the Catholic Reliefthe Rayon de Soleil association was created in 2010, at a time when many Kosovars fleeing war have arrived.

“Our role is to support families in great difficulty by doing everything we can for their integration in France: finding accommodation, taking care of administration or the children’s education,” lists Pierre Delcourt.

Volunteers also go to embassies in Paris for passports.

“We are known to the administrations. Coallia, for example, may ask us for hosting. »

Housing is really the first thing to find and there isn’t enough of it.

Support until autonomy

Right now, Ray of Sun is helping eight families for accommodation for a total amount of €4,500 per month. “We are calling on private landlords, because it is no longer possible for us to work with social landlords since 2023,” laments the president.

Families are followed for several years before they are completely independent.

For its book fair, Rayon de Soleil can count on the support of other associations such as Emmaus or the Popular Relief. “We have a lot of links between us, for example, with Cimade or RESF61, because we have the same concerns,” adds the president.

The Rayon de Soleil association always looking for volunteers to help the six people who work there all year round.

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