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Manoj Kr Dash, CEO of IVN (Integrated Volunteer Network), India Integrated Volunteers Network (IVN) and Life Project 4 Youth (LP4Y) have jointly implemented Home2Home Volunteering in Raipur, Chhattisgarh State of India. 12 volunteers took responsibility of volunteering from their Home to 30 Homes (families) from their community of concern to facilitate emergency communication & coordination during the lockdown period to fight against COVID19. Objective was to integrate the voluntary power of India in fighting against the COVID19 through Home2Home volunteering services over digital platforms for proper and effective communication and emergency aid. Major Responsibilities were : spreading authentic and vernacular communications on COVID 19 to the target families and reduce rumors and fake news, sharing the Helpline numbers for COVID 19 & important services, ensuring that safety guidelines are being followed by the targeted families, helping in taking the emergency call from the targeted families to support for their health and food requirements, enabling the targeted family to assess common interactive platforms from their Home and help them to find better ways to engage during homestay and documenting the memories of targeted families. It was initiated with online registration of 12 volunteers. Volunteers were trained online and they completed an Online Certificate Course. Everyday authentic and vernacular communication was sent in H2HV Whatsapp group. Further those messages were disseminated to concerned families. Emergency health care and food service were provided by national core team from whomsoever request was raised. More than 100 families were registered online using google form. Volunteers had series of interactions and discussions with registered families. Family Engagement tools and indicators helped strengthen family bond and enhanced relationship. Each weekend there were regular discussions with the H2HVolunteers to listen to their inspiring actions, ground zero happenings, needs and planning for the next week. Special feature of volunteer were their committed effort in spreading message in their localities, distribution of dry ration from panchayat and distribution of dry ration from FreeRationDiya etc. All the volunteers' effort will be recognized with certificate and further best volunteers will be felicitated during India Volunteer Day Award Ceremony. Their stories will be published in Voice of India Volunteer monthly newsletter. IVN would like to sincerely thank Pauline and the 12 volunteers for their commendable volunteering effort. IVN always believes in the philosophy that collaboration helps in better implementation of programs at the grass root level as we leverage on strength on each other. It was wonderful to collaborate with LP4Y and I am looking forward for more such collaborative work in future.

Ebenezer Sudhaharan, program Leader in Oasis, Chennai (India) Ebenezer Sudhaharan, a Program Leader in Oasis, in Chennai, shares with us his experience of work with the LP4Y Youth during the COVID-19 crisis. The Covid-19 was scary for everyone, and along with it came the lockdown which became a bigger challenge for all rural and urban poor communities. Without jobs and income for days, the migrant populations started walking back to their natives and the urban poors began rationing their food supplies so that they could feed their family at least once a day. In this situation, I witnessed a group of youths from LP4Y rising up above these odds to help their community in every way possible. I was really challenged to see their commitment and their support in helping serve the community better. Thanks to the Coaches and our existing relationship with LP4Y we were able to work together in this difficult situation. I was involved in networking with a few Non profit organizations working in the Kannaginagar community and was able to get support from few organizations to distribute ration kits and face masks. In the month of April, on the 11th we were able to distribute ration kits to 22 families (sponsored by Goodness Foundation) with the help of 4 Youth/Stars, on the 21st we were able to distribute 700 masks (sponsored by Roshni Trust), again with the help of 4 Youth/Stars, on the 23rd we were able to distribute ration kit to 380 families with the help of 6 Youth/Stars. During these distributions, the volunteers were involved in writing names, getting signatures, managing the beneficiaries, distributing tokens, taking photos etc… As Oasis we appreciate the support rendered to us through the Youth/Stars of LP4Y. LP4Y has been systematically playing an active role in creating agents of change in the community through their coaching and programmes. I have personally seen and heard the challenges the coaches go through in the community and their sacrifice towards these Youth has been yielding good fruits and the Youth who graduate and become Stars (Alumni of the program) became more confident and are equipped enough to face the challenges they encounter both in their career and in general day-to-day living. I would like to thank LP4Y and the team for their contribution towards the development of this community.

Sumit Singh, Rugby & SRFA Leader, Decathlon Atria (Mumbai) My name is Sumit Singh, I am a Rugby & SRFA City Leader in Decathlon Atria Mumbai. Decathlon and LP4Y are partners for many years in India and have developed a lot of different initiatives regarding the professional inclusion for excluded Youth. This pandemic situation forced us to stop our activities but it helped us to develop new ideas like organizing a digital workshop with different organizations who are working with excluded Youth. This idea turns into reality and we had a wonderful digital workshop, jointly conducted by Decathlon along with LP4Y and Khelo Rugby (a non-governmental organization based in Kolkata) The basic motto behind this workshop was to motivate the Youth and connect them across the culture. The reason why we chose LP4Y and Khelo Rugby is because these two organizations share the same goal as we also do : guiding and developing the younger generation to be the leaders of tomorrow. The result has been a workshop gathering 50 Youths ! The participants have been separated in groups of five and certain questions were asked to them, like "what keeps you focused in life while also dealing with problems?" or "how do you motivate yourself to get work done even after failing again and again?" Through this workshop, the Young adults got motivated and started believing more in themselves as we could see the smiling faces at the end of the workshop. Moreover, it was the opportunity to develop their IT skills by using a video conference application and practised their professional behaviour. In these harsh pandemic conditions, we are happy that through this kind of workshop we could bring a glimpse of a smile on their face.

The encounter between Barry Howe and Cecile de Lacvivier from Alstom with LP4Y, in Bengaluru. Barry Howe : Hello. I’m Barry Howe, the Secretary General of the Alstom Corporate Foundation. I first came across LP4Y back in 2017 during a familiarization visit to its project in New Delhi. I was very impressed by the work being done there to give young ladies from highly disadvantaged environments a chance of securing a decent job as a first step on a career ladder. A decent job with decent pay which could, in time, make them financially independent. Selecting these ladies; securing their family’s permission and support; paying them some subsistence allowance for their participation; teaching them English; training them for work in a business; helping them to secure a first job that would take advantage of these new skills – this is all within the remit of LP4Y and they are very good at it. Subsequently, I was delighted when, in 2018, LP4Y submitted a project for funding to the Alstom Foundation. Alstom funds were to support the development of a Life Project Centre (LPC), an incubator for entrepreneurial projects, in Devara Jeevana Halli slum area in Bengaluru, which would enable 30 Young women per year to be accompanied towards their social and professional integration. Young women and mothers in this area have almost no opportunities to obtain life-skills based education or training and thus enhance their chances to get hired. This is why LP4Y chose to build an LPC in this zone. Specifically, the Alstom Foundation funds supported the reconstruction of the building - constructing the upper floor and an annex building in front of the centre. The work started in November 2018 and was completed a year later. What was especially appealing from the Alstom Foundation’s perspective was the proximity of the project site to locations in Bengaluru where Alstom has a major presence and several thousand employees. This gave rise to opportunities for volunteering amongst the Alstom staff in support of the LPC. I will therefore hand over to my colleague Cecile de-Lacvivier, who is working in Bangalore and who has participated in some of these volunteering activities. Cécile de Lacvivier : Thank you Barry! I am Cecile de Lacvivier, Head of Talent Management in India since 2019. I am an engineer and I have been working for Alstom for more than 10 years now, in different fields like Quality, Innovation, Training, HR. I met LP4Y teams in Bengaluru for their Entrepreneur Day, in January 2020 and I have been impressed by the energy and courage of these young ladies. How they were able to be on the stage in front of a public and present their projects/ stories was amazing. Unfortunately, our Alstom offices are quite far from their location in Bengaluru and the Covid crisis started, so it was difficult to propose any job. However, in order to prepare them to find a job, we decided to organise remote mock interviews with our recruiters’ team. For the future, we would like to continue our partnership with LP4Y, extend it to all our locations where LP4Y is present and share testimonies from our female employees on site to help the youths to find a job they like.

Solenn Paumier Socitété Générale -Who are you? What has been your career within SG? I was born and raised in France. I first joined Société Générale (SG) in Paris in 2000 where I spent 8 years in various roles within the support functions for Investment Banking. I arrived in the US in 2008 when I followed my husband who took a position in Philadelphia. I joined SG New York in 2011. I am currently Head of IT & Operations for the Financing businesses in the Americas since 2016. - How did your « adventure » with LP4Y start ? How did you get to know the NGO? I discovered LP4Y in 2011 when I arrived in NY through a group of friends who were close family members from Jean-Marc Delaporte, the founder of LP4Y. I was immediately impressed by their personal story: the Delaporte family left their comfortable life and career to live in the poorest regions in Asia and start building a local community to help the Youth living there in a situation of extreme poverty and exclusion. The LP4Y model is unique as combining a professional education program targeting youths in extreme poverty, leveraging volunteered and talented professionals as coaches, while ensuring a strong ethics and a very lean organization where every dollar donated is invested for the Youth and the development of the Life Project Centers. - How are you involved in? What type of actions did you work on? I started to be involved in local fundraising events personally and very quickly connected with my colleagues at SG in New York and Paris who were already supporting LP4Y for many years through the SG Paris Corporate Foundation. In my role at SG New-York, I am interacting with teams in Bengaluru on a daily basis and I thought that supporting the organization from New York could make sense. Very quickly, the Asian Professional Network (APN) Employee Resource Group (ERG) headed by Aadesh Gandhre organized some very creative and successful fundraising corporate events. Thanks to the SG NY matching program, APN was able to support the development of the LP4Y Center in Bengaluru focusing on Women and Digital. This year, the fund raised helped with the development of the LP4Y Center in Chennai centered around youth empowerment through sports. - Have you been in contact with the Youth? What did you do ? How did you feel? In November last year, during a trip to visit my team in Bengaluru, I had the chance to visit the LP4Y Center there with some of my colleagues. It was an incredible life changing experience. It was very heartwarming to see the evolution of those young women, from the ones very shy and uncomfortable who just joined the center to the other ones at the last stage of this 9 months program, speaking English fluently and full of confidence to start looking for a job and begin their professional life! I was very proud of SG being a valuable and strong partner to LP4Y for so many years and took some pictures to show to our generous SG employees what they have helped to accomplish. - What are the next steps? During this summer, I have been participating in a remote mock interviews mentoring program with two youths from the Life Project Center in Chennai. I was very impressed by their professionalism, energy and positive spirit and was glad to build a direct relationship with them. I will continue to be involved in the future fundraising events organized by the APN ERG at SG NY and to closely follow the development of project to create of an LP4Y lab in the Bronx, even if it has had to slow down with the pandemic.

Matthieu de Romblay, former LP4Y volunteer, Philippines Matthieu de Romblay, shares with us his experience as Project Leader Parnership in 2019. [French version below] When I discovered LP4Y, the engagement as a Catalyst appeared to me as evidence. The challenge of accompanying Youth from slums towards a decent job was simultaneously in line with not only my deepest beliefs but also the skills I was able to develop during my former experience. I therefore came to Manila in February 2019 to start my mission as Project Leader Partnership. In each country, LP4Y builds some bridges between the slums and the decent world, the world where each has a roof over their heads, several meals a day and access to healthcare . The partners support us to build these bridges - those are the organizations, the associations, the companies which accompany the training and the job integration of the Youth. My role was to develop new partnerships and strengthen the existing ones in the area of the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. I therefore had the luck to be at the forefront when the Youth discovered with delight a company. I witnessed their contagious joy at every hiring . I recall one Youth of my centre, Angelito Mendoza who was unable to contain his pride of being recruited in CGI and left the center running to announce the good news to his relatives. His brother, impressed, could not believe him : for him, such jobs were reserved for college graduates, so you imagine a Youth who hasn't finished high-school, uncredible ! These outbursts of happiness are part of the most memorable moments of my mission, these memories remind me everyday that when we work together, we can realize extraordinary things. As I spoke to Angelito and others during my mission, I realized that the main factor of exclusion of Young Adults is not the lack of skills, many of them are smart and motivated . What actually stands in the way of the Youth is the distrust of the companies, their fear to take the risk of meeting uncommon profiles. To be successful, we all need someone who reaches out to us, who believes in us, and only once we have that trust, we can prove ourselves. I have witnessed managers and directors of companies who dare, who take the risk of trusting these young people and who reap benefits from this decision. A Decathlon manager testified that in a few years, he would no longer remember the figures for his store, but he will remember he accompanied Mary Jane JC for her to find her place in the team and of the commitment, the joy, the motivation she brought to the group. But sometimes, giving that trust is not enough. Some of the Youth quit a job that seemed to suit them perfectly. I was particularly frustrated by these missed opportunities, by these Young Adults who don’t take their chance, perhaps the only chance of their lives . I remember Marissa Tadlog who after going through a long application process to join a hotel did not show up on her first day of work . Similarly, Angelyn quit an ideal job to spend more time with her family after only a few weeks. Living through these moments of discouragement, I felt I understood an essential aspect as a Catalyst. It is not only a matter of supporting the Youth finding a job, working on the short term. It is a matter of helping them build self-confidence, and help them to realize they have a place in a world from which they have always been excluded. So you have to be patient, humble, admit your helplessness when faced with certain situations when some Youth leave the programme before the end or when others give up the ideal job. Our role is to always be there, to look out for them, to believe in them when they no longer have the energy to believe in themselves. And it works. Each month, the Youth who left the programme return and the others who missed an opportunity come back more motivated than ever to find the job which will change their lives. Marissa finally got a job as a receptionist in ZenRooms chain of hotels and Angelyn got hired a few months later in Sodexo, she now has a salary that allows her whole family to live. You understood it, trust and confidence are for me the essential elements . I also gained self-confidence during this year. Confidence in myself to dare to ask help from the community, to ask partners to commit to inclusion. As my mission progressed, I became convinced that contrary to what I thought , a vast majority of people are ready to help, almost everyone has unexploited natural reserves of altruism.. Some people give time by offering training to the Youth, some make donations to finance a project and a few just take five minutes to connect us with one of their friends and these five minutes will result in the hiring of the Youth and eruption of joy in the slums of Manila. When I am talking about giving, it’s obviously not one-sided. At LP4Y, we say that there is not one way , there are not the ones who give and the ones who receive on the other side. The Youth, the donors, the partners, the Catalysts, we all benefit a lot from this experience and I recommend everyone to try it out, it was an extraordinary year for me. Lorsque j’ai découvert LP4Y, l’engagement en tant que catalyste m’est apparu comme une évidence. Le défi d’accompagner des jeunes issus des bidonvilles vers un travail décent était à la fois aligné avec mes convictions profondes et avec les compétences que j’avais pu développer lors de ma précédente expérience. J’ai donc rejoint Manille en février 2019 pour commencer ma mission en tant que responsable des partenariats. Dans chaque pays, LP4Y construit des ponts entre les bidonvilles et le monde décent, le monde dans lequel chacun à un toit, plusieurs repas par jours et l’accès aux soins. Les partenaires nous aident à construire ces ponts, ce sont les organisations, les associations, les entreprises qui accompagnent la formation et l’insertion professionnelle des jeunes. Mon rôle était de développer de nouveaux partenariats et de renforcer les partenariats existants sur la zone Philippines, Vietnam, Indonésie. J’avais donc la chance d’être aux premières loges quand les jeunes découvraient avec émerveillement une entreprise et d’être témoin de leurs joies contagieuses à chaque embauche. Je me souviens d’un jeune de mon centre, Angelito Mendoza, qui, ne pouvant contenir sa fierté à l’annonce de son recrutement chez CGI, a quitté le centre en courant pour annoncer à sa famille et son entourage la bonne nouvelle. Son frère, impressionné, ne voulait pas le croire, pour lui ce type d’emploi était réservé aux diplômés d’universités, alors vous imaginez un jeune qui n’a même pas fini le lycée, incroyable ! Ces explosions de bonheur font partie des plus beaux moments de ma mission, ces souvenirs me rappellent chaque jour qu’en travaillant ensemble, nous pouvons réaliser des choses extraordinaires. En discutant avec Angelito et d’autres au cours de ma mission, j’ai pris conscience que le principal facteur d’exclusion de ces jeunes n’était pas le manque de compétences, beaucoup étaient malins et motivés ; ce qui bloquait les Jeunes, c’était la méfiance des entreprises, leur peur de prendre le risque d’une rencontre avec des profils différents. Pour réussir, nous avons tous besoin d’une personne qui nous tende la main qui nous donne notre chance, qui croit en nous et c’est seulement une fois que nous portons cette confiance que nous pouvons faire nos preuves. J’ai pu être témoin de managers, de directeurs d’entreprises qui osent, qui prennent le risque de faire confiance à ces jeunes et qui en récoltent des bénéfices. Un manager de Decathlon témoignait que dans quelques années, il ne se souviendrait plus des chiffres de son magasin, mais il se souviendrait d’avoir accompagné Mary Jane JC, pour qu’ils trouvent leur place dans les équipes et de l’engagement, la joie, la motivation qu’ils ont apportés au collectif. Mais parfois accorder cette confiance ne suffit pas. Certaines jeunes abandonnent un emploi qui semblait pourtant parfaitement leur convenir. J’étais particulièrement frustré par ces opportunités manquées, par ces jeunes qui laissent passer leur chance, peut être l’unique chance de leur vie. Je me souviens de Marissa Tadlog qui après avoir suivi un long processus de candidature pour intégrer un hôtel ne s’est pas présentée lors de son premier jour de travail. Angelyn qui après quelques semaines dans un emploi pourtant idéal a démissionné pour passer plus de temps avec sa famille. En vivant ces moments de découragements, j’ai eu le sentiment de comprendre un point essentiel de ma mission de catalyste. Il ne s’agit pas uniquement d’accompagner un jeune à trouver un emploi, de travailler sur le court terme. Il s’agit de l’aider à construire sa confiance en lui, de l’aider à percevoir qu’il a sa place au sein d’un monde dont il a toujours été exclu. Alors il faut s’armer de patience, d’humilité, admettre son impuissance devant certaines situations, quand certains jeunes quittent le programme avant la fin ou d’autre démissionnent du job idéal. Notre rôle est d’être toujours là, d’aller les chercher, de croire en eux quand eux n’ont plus l’énergie d’y croire. Et ça marche. Chaque mois, des Jeunes qui avaient abandonnés le programme reprennent et d’autres qui avaient manqué une opportunité reviennent plus motivés que jamais pour trouver l’emploi qui changera leur vie. Marissa a finalement obtenu un emploi de réceptionniste dans la chaîne d’hotels ZenRooms et Angelyn s’est fait embaucher quelques mois plus tard chez Sodexo et a désormais un salaire qui permet de faire vivre toute sa famille. Vous l’avez compris la confiance est pour moi l’élément essentiel. J’ai aussi gagné confiance en moi pendant cette année. Confiance en moi pour oser demander de l’aide à la communauté, pour demander à des partenaires qu’ils s’engagent pour l’inclusion. Au fur et à mesure de ma mission, j’ai acquis la conviction que contrairement à ce que je pouvais penser, l’immense majorité des gens sont prêts à aider, la quasi-totalité d’entre nous avons des réserves naturelles d’altruisme inexploitées. Certains donnent du temps en proposant des formations aux jeunes, d’autres font des dons permettant de financer un projet et quelques-uns vont juste prendre cinq minutes pour nous mettre en relation avec un de leurs amis et ces cinq minutes vont aboutir à des embauches de Jeunes et des explosions de joie dans les bidonvilles de Manille. Quand je parle de donner, ce n’est évidemment pas à sens unique. Chez LP4Y, on dit qu’il n’y a pas d’un côté, ceux qui donnent ou ceux qui reçoivent, les Jeunes, les donateurs, les partenaires, les catalystes, nous recevons tous énormément de cette expérience et je recommanderai à chacun de tenter l’aventure, c’était pour moi une année extraordinaire.

Anne Lambin Fondation Roquette [French version below] It’s not easy to pick up the pen to introduce myself and tell about my meeting with the volunteers and the “Catalysts” of LP4Y. My career seems so banal compared to those of Laure, Chanelle, Mathilde, Loriane or Alexia. I joined the Roquette company in 1989, after graduating from my engineering school. After having occupied several positions in Research & Development and Sustainable Development, I am in charge of the Roquette Health Foundation since November 2017. Very quickly, thanks to Marc, a Roquette employee in India, I had the opportunity to meet Laure Delaporte during one of her trips to France. From the start, I realized that I am facing a person who is invested, passionate, convinced, and so generous! Very quickly, by talking together, we identified a project in India near our offices in Mumbai, which was aligned with the mission and could be presented to the Executive Committee of the Foundation. With two other associations, LP4Y would be one of the first for the Foundation to support, for one year. The great adventure started: first contact by email with Chanelle and Alexia in India and a first meeting with our staff from the Mumbai offices and the Youth of the Life Project Center (LPC) in Malwani. We also organized a presentation of the "Yummy" project (production of healthy snacks) to our shareholders during a day in our La Madeleine offices (with the presence of Manon, former catalyst in India) in the North of France. One of our experts trained the Youth in food safety . A visit to our offices in Mumbai was organized also, and so on. In short, many connections were put in place: the youth discovered the business professions, and employees discovered the joy of sharing their skills with the youth. Finally, I met the LP4Y Lille team, super dynamic, friendly and with a surprise: Romain, one of my colleagues from the La Madeleine office, was one of them! Exchanges were multiplying and allowed the follow-up of the actions of the Lille team. I participated in the two annual meetings, each time with the joy of seeing again and talking with Laure. The first year was passing and nearing the end of the Foundation’s support. Very quickly, it was necessary to discuss again with the teams because the Yummy project made way for the Lifeline project. Lifeline would help the community of Malwani on health, food and hygiene issues as a more general program but especially more useful. But to go further, something was missing from all these exchanges: What was really going on in the centers? I needed to see with my eyes and meet the youth and catalysts in the field! The opportunity was given to me in March 2019. That's it: I'm going to India for a week! Upon arrival, I experienced culture shock, while feeling so privileged and lucky, yet so helpless. Finally, THE MEETING! On Thursday morning, I went by taxi with Balaji (former HR at Roquette). After an hour's journey, several U-turns, we were in front of the center: all the Youth were there, all on "their 31" (well dressed) and awaited us intimidated. Obviously, I was too! The day went by at lightning speed. I discovered all the passions, desires and rituals of these Youth and above all, I discovered the great actions and educational path implemented by LP4Y. I discussed with the team about the Lifeline project and new support from the Roquette Foundation, this time for two years! We worked and reflected together on the most relevant presentation. Therefore, I ran out of time to go and meet the families in the slum! It was a shame, so I would have to come back! Our Executive Committee validated support for the Lifeline project in June. All in all, I am so moved by and admire the commitment and involvement of the Catalysts. What a great human adventure. The work done with the Youth is so impressive and so useful for their social and professional integration! Life is made up of beautiful meetings that change and shape you: My meeting with LP4Y and its team is an example! “Meetings in life are like the wind. Some just touch your skin, others knock you over.” Ce n’est pas facile de prendre la plume pour se présenter et raconter ma rencontre avec les bénévoles et les « catalystes » de LP4Y. Mon parcours est tellement banal par rapport à ceux de Laure, Chanelle, Mathilde, Loriane ou Alexia: arrivée dans l’entreprise Roquette en 1989, à la sortie de mon école d’ingénieur, et après avoir occupé plusieurs postes en R&D et en Développement Durable, je gère la Fondation Roquette pour la Santé depuis novembre 2017. Très vite, grâce à Marc, collaborateur de Roquette en Inde, j’ai l’occasion de rencontrer Laure Delaporte lors d’un de ses passages en France. Dès le début, je m’aperçois que je suis face à une personne, investie, passionnée, convaincue, et tellement généreuse ! Très vite, en discutant ensemble, nous identifions un projet en Inde près de nos bureaux de Mumbai, qui est aligné avec la mission et peut être présenté au Comité Executif de la Fondation. Avec 2 autres associations, LP4Y fera partie des premiers soutiens de la fondation pour un an. La belle aventure peut commencer : premiers contacts par mail avec Chanelle et Alexia en Inde, premières rencontres avec nos collaborateurs des bureaux de Mumbai et les jeunes du LPC de Malwani, une présentation du projet « Yummy »(fabrication d’en-cas nutritifs) à nos actionnaires lors d’une journée dans nos bureaux de la Madeleine (avec la présence de Manon, ancienne Catalyste en Inde), des formations à l’hygiène alimentaire par un de nos experts pour les jeunes du centre, une visite de nos bureaux de Mumbaï. Bref plein de connexions se mettent en place : les jeunes découvrent les métiers de l’entreprise et les collaborateurs découvrent la joie de partager leurs compétences avec les jeunes. Pour finir, je rencontre l’équipe de LP4Y Lille, super dynamique, sympathique et oh surprise : Romain, un de mes collègues du site de la Madeleine, en fait partie ! Les échanges se multiplient et permettent le suivi des actions de l’équipe lilloise. Je participe aux 2 réunions annuelles, avec à chaque fois la joie de revoir et de discuter avec Laure. La première année s’écoule et c’est déjà la fin du support. Très vite il faut rediscuter avec les équipes car le projet « Yummy » disparait pour faire place au projet « Lifeline » qui permettra d’aider la communauté de Malwani sur les questions de santé, d’alimentation et d’hygiène : programme plus global mais surtout plus utile. Mais pour aller plus loin, il manque quelque chose à tous ces échanges : Que se passe-t ’il réellement dans les centres ? J’ai besoin de voir de mes yeux et d’aller à la rencontre des jeunes et des Catalystes sur le terrain ! L’opportunité m’en est donnée en mars 2019 : ça y est : je vais en Inde pour une semaine ! A l’arrivée, choc culturel, sentiment d’être tellement privilégiée et chanceuse, et tellement impuissante. Et enfin, LA RENCONTRE ! Le jeudi matin, je pars en taxi avec Balaji (ancien RH chez Roquette). Après une heure de trajet, plusieurs demi-tours, nous voici devant le centre : tous les jeunes sont là, tous sur « leur 31 » et nous attendent intimidés. Forcément, je le suis aussi ! La journée passe à la vitesse de l’éclair, je découvre toutes les passions, envies et rituels de ces jeunes et surtout je découvre la formidable action et le parcours pédagogique mis en place par LP4Y. Je discute avec l’équipe en place du projet Lifeline et d’un nouveau soutien de la Fondation Roquette, cette fois pour 2 ans ! nous travaillons et réfléchissons ensemble sur la présentation la plus pertinente. De ce fait je n’aurai pas le temps d’aller rencontrer les familles dans le bidonville ! c’est dommage, il faudra que je revienne ! Le soutien au projet Lifeline a été validé en juin par notre COMEX. Pour terminer, je suis tellement émue et admirative devant l’engagement et l’implication des Catalystes. Quelle belle aventure humaine. Le travail réalisé avec les jeunes est impressionnant, et tellement utile pour leur intégration sociale et professionnelle ! La vie est faite de belles rencontres qui vous changent et vous façonnent : Ma rencontre avec LP4Y et son équipe en est un exemple ! " Les rencontres dans la vie sont comme le vent. Certaines vous effleurent juste la peau, d'autres vous renversent."

Ignatius Suparno, Yayasan Kasih Bangsa Surabaya (YKBS), Indonesia In April 2019 a visitor of my province told me about this organization named Life Project 4 Youth which works in partnership with Atmabrata Foundation in Jakarta. I tried to get contact with Roch Alaguillaume, who was at this time the LP4Y’s Country Coordinator of Indonesia . Surprisingly he directly welcomed me to see their actions with the Youth in their center. So I paid a visit with two of my staff. It seems I “fell in love at first sight”. Honestly, I was shocked by the location of the site which is very poor and so polluted. Yet the volunteers stay among the most underprivileged people. Witnessing the courage of volunteers to live that way, I concluded that they expressed the catholic value “preferential option for the poor.” No wonder if I instantly said, “Yes, I will collaborate with you. Please come to visit us in Surabaya.” For me Surabaya is an interesting place. In fact, Surabaya is the destination place for the East Region of Indonesia to work, to do business, and to get higher education. At the same time, even though Surabaya doesn’t face extreme poverty such as Jakarta, it is covered by neighboring cities and islands which are so poor in resources and educational opportunities. For this reason I think Surabaya is the second best place after Jakarta to erect such Training centers, as the ones of LP4Y. Likely, the communication was done so quickly. After Roch Alaguillaume, Fanette Billot, Rizka Maulida and John Delaporte visited Surabaya, we were sure that LP4Y would open the center in Surabaya in collaboration with Yayasan Kasih Bangsa Surabaya (YKBS). We made a choice for the site : a kampong (village) of poor fisherman. I am so glad to see the progress of communication with the local people, with Muslim clerics, and with youth organizations. I am so impressed also about the instant decision to send three first volunteers: Rizka Maulida, Amaury Belarbi and Khawla Boutalouss, who are so hardworking, cheerful and approachable. Considering those situations, I am very confident about the future of this center and collaboration. However, the uniqueness of the character of people in this region, in particular Surabaya, required us to do research and studies on the culture and type of poverty faced by these people. It means, we need time and hard work to make direct contacts with people and do the mapping, as much about the problems as the different opportunities there. Because of personal exceptional circumstances, the catalysts in place had to leave for a few weeks. Thus the center in Surabaya is still waiting for opening, nevertheless they will be back as soon as possible, probably by October, to inaugurate the new Life Project Center before the end of 2020.

The covid-19 crisis is surely not over and there are many remaining challenges. LP4Y innovates to cope with the social and economical consequences on the communities and with the current and future transformation of the job market. It is now time to look forward and work hard to adapt the actions for Youth professional and social integration. Yet, many creative initiatives have already been implemented for and with the Youth to overcome all together this unprecedented situation. Since the beginning of the lockdown and closure of all LP4Y centers on March 14th, 648 Young adults remained fully morally and financially supported by their coach, 884 Stars alumni of the program and former dropped-out were exceptionally financially supported to face their job loss and price flash, the coaches turned to an adapted distanced pedagogy, the Digital project team operated the test phase of the e-learning and networking platform Digital Inc. and got everything ready for a global launch in November, LP4Y Stories were created, the Youth and Catalysts united their strength to support other organizations providing services to help the excluded communities… and so many other great actions that have shown the power of the Catalysts effect. All those achievements could not have been possible without the support of the strong LP4Y ecosystem. Considering that not to support the Youth was not an option, LP4Y had to raise special crisis funds to maintain the actions without jeopardizing the many future projects for the social and professional inclusion of excluded Young adults living in extreme poverty in Asia and soon in Europe. Many of our global and local partners responded positively and chose to stand by LP4Y and thus to stand by each excluded Young adult accompanied. To those incredible partners, THANK YOU from all LP4Y members! Together let’s continue to bridge the gap between the decent and the excluded worlds. #StrongerTogether Throughout the crisis, LP4Y chose to pursue its mission and maintained its daily support to the Youth. Here is a detailed report of actions carried out during the crisis and an assessment of their impact: https://www.lp4y.org/point-de-situation

Meet Han, who found a job in Đông Tây Barber Shop. Ong Tường Hân, 18 yo, STAR Bread & Smiles Program, Hairdresser and barber at Đông Tây Barber Shop

Jeanne Crepelle, India Country Coordinator, comes back to India's first November meetings. Jeanne Crepelle, Country coordinator , LPC Chennai, India November meetings in Asia have been a great opportunity to gather all our partners from different cities and countries digitally. It enabled us to share not only LP4Y’ actions during this difficult year of crisis, but also 2021 perspectives and next steps. Partners realised their involvement’s worth (mobilisation actions, remote mock interviews, digital company visits, etc.) or got more information on how to be involved with LP4Y for the coming months. When it comes to the Youth, these meetings were the occasion to take part in a new project. They made some videos of their centers, explained their achievements during the Covid19 crisis and shared about their resilience. As Catalysts, it was the good time to testify that despite the current world's situation full of stress and uncertainty, many things are possible! We have to keep on going and get inspired by the Youth. In LP4Y, we pursued our efforts to be agile, by finding new ways of working together and innovating to continue our mission for and with the Youth and their communities. In India, we organized 6 meetings corresponding to LP4Y cities of actions: Kolkata, Delhi, Raipur, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. A lot of partners joined: institutional, corporate, philanthropic as well as external trainers, friends and people from the communities, families and everyone that could be interested in LP4Y's project. It was a lot of work and a big challenge to organize these meetings. Nevertheless, the result was great and it was worth it. Once again, LP4Y Youth, Catalysts and Partners have shown that adaptability and innovation are the best way to move on!

Rumana shares a story about gender equality in Bangladesh and shows how women have to prove their value and work twicest hard than men to get what they want! Rumana Akter Ria, TDC Vashantek, Dhaka, Bangladesh