One more athlete supporting the victims of Mayotte. After Toifilou Maoulida's call for help or the auction of Olympique de Marseille jerseys, it is the turn of Dimitri Payet, currently on vacation at home in Reunion, to get involved to help the archipelago devastated by the biggest cyclone the island has experienced in 90 years. The 2016 European vice-champion has signed up with the Reunion branch of the Food Bank.
“The athlete recently met Bruno Prochasson, President of the Banque Alimentaire des Mascareignes in Reunion, in order to join in the solidarity efforts already underway,” the organization wrote in a press release. 50 tonnes of goods to Mayotte to “meet urgent needs” have already been sent and the Board of Directors of the Reunion association voted for “exceptional aid of one million euros for the neighboring island which has been so hard hit” .
“They are our neighbors. I think we all have a Mahorais in our entourage that we know, with whom we grew up. We, Reunion Islanders, are also well placed to know that disasters like the cyclone can happen to us too. Mayotte must be raised. I wanted to go to Mayotte, but for health reasons, it was not possible,” explains the Vasco De Gama player, new sponsor of the association, at the microphone of France Télévisions La 1ère.
Cyclone Chido caused the death of at least 35 people and destroyed all precarious housing on December 14 and caused colossal damage in the poorest department in France, where emergency services have since been hard at work to restore essential services such as water, electricity and communications networks.
