Franck Mignan, living in Saint-Cyprien, is a volunteer with the French Red Cross. He worked to distribute essential goods to victims in the north of the ravaged island of Mayotte after the passage of Cyclone Chido last December.
The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Irma in 2017 on the island of Saint-Martin… Franck Mignan has crossed the globe more than once to help the most vulnerable . “By vocation”agrees this member of the humanitarian emergency response team (ERU) of the French Red Cross who grew up with a father who was a firefighter in the Loiret. The forty-year-old is a “relief” expert in the distribution of essential goods. “Our role is to assess disasters to put in place a rapid response in the provision of emergency kits so that those affected can continue to live”specifies this resident of Saint-Cyprien engaged on December 17 on the Mayotte archipelago.
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Our Mahorese colleagues from the Red Cross participated in this distribution even though they themselves were affected.
“We are used to intervening in developing countries. There, the most challenging thing for us was to act on French territory, for our compatriots”is moved by Franck Mignan, who previously had only traveled through Mayotte for two days. “The contrast upon my arrival was glaring. I found destroyed vegetation, devastated bangas (slum dwellings), closed roads, populations deprived of water and electricity. On site with my partner, we We assessed the needs, established orders for emergency equipment and distributed what was needed to the disaster victims, lists the volunteer who, for a time, was an employee of the Red Cross. The most urgent thing was to be able to give the population food and drink using pumps and water purification tablets, buckets, jerry cans.”
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Cyclone Chido in Mayotte: tropical medicine, logging, repair of the roof of a school… firefighters from the Pyrénées-Orientales on the front line
Throughout the north of the island, this framework in the field of emergency and first aid also provided hygiene kits, so-called “family” crockery kits, and so-called “reconstruction” tools. And quickly realized that “our Mahorese colleagues from the Red Cross participated in this distribution even though they were themselves affected. I made sure that they were beneficiaries. It was touching to work with them. That’s what it’s all about too the Red Cross Thanks to our donors, we meet all our beneficiaries and hand them what they need.” He emphasizes: “This mission will last in the long term, there is still a lot of suffering and injuries. We will have to continue to show solidarity. For my part, it is possible that I will return to Mayotte.”
