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Chandrashekar SAHU: He lives in Saragaon (the place where GV Raipur is located). After he achieved 12th pass, he didn’t know what to do, and heard about the training through some friends who have attended Batch 1 and 2. Thanks to the training, he connected to good partners and now work as an accountant. He has now 8 months of experience. He is 21 years old and works as an Accountant at Acculegal in Raipur. (on the left) I am from a middle-class family. In my house, we are 6 people. I had passed 12th before joining lp4y. After that I decided to join LP4Y. My family was supported to join LP4Y because it was a great opportunity to change my life. There, I learned things I never knew before and how to succeed. During the training, I learned a lot of knowledge and many things, how to build my confidence and handle myself better. We worked like a real company in micro company. Not only did I have English and computer skills, but how to become a professional and how to become more self-sufficient. English and communication skills. I feel more confident. I have learned how to be professional. We will gain more experience, and we will have more opportunities to find jobs in the future. After joining LP4Y I have been working as an accountant in a private company for about 10 months and I am very happy. I only hang out with my friends on weekends. I have more faith now and I can handle the responsibility in addition to this. Thank you to all the coaches, you work really hard to help us change our lives. I joined LP4Y in February 2019. Bhuvan LAL: from outside village, he found a job in SODEXO after LP4Y, and super grateful about his experience. He is 21 years old and works as a Service Staff in Sodexo Background My name is Bhuvan Lal Chandavansi. I am 22 years old, I come from a very small village Mungeli, which is 20 km from Dongargarh, I have studied till 12th pass, in that case I work as a laborer in the village. I came to know from a friend of mine that there is a Livelihood college in Dongargarh in which computer training is given for free, then I came to Dongargarh and filled the form and used to go to Dongargarh, but I used to work in Dongargarh, which used to earn money. He used to pour petrol in the bike and used to come to Dongargarh College when our training was over, then from there, he told me about Green Village Raipur, and I joined the Green Village. LP4Y EXPERIENCE I felt like Green Village is my mother from day one, just as Mother supports her child all the time and is always standing with her, in the same way, Green Village is always standing with me, I came from a small village. Only knew my local language, I did not understand Hindi, I was afraid to talk to people, that is why I did not talk to many people, the rest of people knew Hindi and English was the one langage most understood. But coaches used to support me all the time and used to motivate me all the time, always they stood with me when our training was over, so many people got jobs but I could not get it, that's why I was very disappointed. I was lost because I did not have much education, but the coaches kept supporting me. At one time I started thinking that I should go back home now, but the coaches supported me. For me to get a very good job. “Do not give up”. And then I came to know that Sodexo looked for workers. I said that I thought that Sodexo would be a small restaurant, but when I went there, I kept seeing that Sodexo was giving very big service. The company was there. I felt that I would not be able to get a job here as I could not find a job in many places but when I was interviewed, I was selected ther. I could not believe that I got a job in this big company, never thought that I would work in such a big company... Today it has been 1 year for me to work here. Today I am whatever I am because of the green village. Thank you my experience in the green village.I have never thought that the Green village changed my whole life. LEARN THERE 1.money management 2. Computer 3. Time management 4. Communication skills 5. Stand fear 6. Stay in professional attire PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT 1. Speak to people. 2. Contact 3. Stay professional 4. Believe in myself 5. Started understanding Hindi and English 6. I am not afraid to talk to people MEI COMPANY LP4Y Greens village Raipur Aja Khaja, a Green Village Company, was in the company and I had a HR there in the post GV PEDAGOGY LP4Y in Green Village, all the companies used to be operational from Monday to Friday, but Aaja Khaja was running every day, because all the companies used to work on their own company in these restaurants, from Monday to Friday, on Saturday and Sundays everyone would work together. I loved this pedagogy for a family in Aja Khaja in Green Village. See the testimony of Sagar SAHU, Batch 1, Green Village Raipur >>here See the testimony of Laxmi SAHU, Batch 2, Green Village Raipur >>here

Among many other activities, Youth from PayataSport program got the challenge to practice yoga positions on morning. Since then, some regularly enjoy it! Here are some examples of postures that you can try at home.

[English version below] Théo Viron, 29 yo, Coach Chennai Community Champions of Change Program 1 Life Project Center Chennai, India Tout nouveau coach à Chennai en février je commençais seulement à prendre mes marques et comprendre mon travail quand le confinement est arrivé. Du coup on ferme, merci et au revoir. En réaction à cette crise, LP4Y a décidé de ne pas rester dans l’immobilisme et de trouver de nouveaux moyens et des solutions pour continuer à soutenir les jeunes dans leur intégration professionnelle. La manière la plus commune pour notre œil d’européen ultra-connecté fut donc naturellement la voix du digital. Deux raisons à cela il me semble, d’un côté nous sommes bercés par les ordinateurs, tablettes, smartphones depuis le plus jeune âge et d’un autre côté chaque jeune que l’on croise possède un smartphone avant d’avoir un travail. On se dit donc que s’ils ont un bel outil pédagogique entre les mains pourquoi ne pas nous en servir ? Nous voilà embarqués dans une nouvelle forme de pédagogie basée sur le digital, Le fameux E-learning ! Issu d’une formation en E-learning de 4 ans j’ai pu avoir un aperçu des bienfaits, des dérives et des limites de cette pédagogie. Enfin bon là on démarre avec les basiques de la pédagogie digitale, c’est à dire répondre à un appel vidéo et couper son micro. On met en place des règles simples : essayer d’être dans un endroit calme, essayer d’avoir de la batterie, essayer d’être à l’heure, essayer d’avoir de la data Internet, envoyer votre travail en fin de journée, etc… Mais voilà tout est chamboulé, ces règles qui nous paraissent simples sont dans ce contexte de vraies acrobaties. Il est difficile de trouver un endroit calme quand toute la famille est en lockdown, de charger son téléphone lorsqu'il y a des coupures d'électricité ou encore d’avoir de la data disponible pour faire une visio-conférence. Et malgré tout ça, une fois qu’on a réussi à faire comprendre à tout le monde comment on coupe son micro pendant que quelqu’un d’autre parle, on se retrouve avec un videocall digne d’un webinar de l’ONU plein d’agents secrets avec leurs écouteurs enfoncés dans les oreilles et le petit micro en main. Pour parler plus sérieusement, il est impressionnant de voir à quelle vitesse la team s’est adaptée à une Daily Confcall que je leur impose de manière complètement arbitraire. Premièrement un jeune, Sudhir pour ne pas le citer, a pris l’initiative de créer une attendance digital et un commitment board sur du digital, chose à laquelle je n’aurais jamais pensée. Deuxièmement, ils s’écoutent et s’entraident presque plus que lorsqu’ils étaient en training room, les clans et les petits groupes ont disparu, on a une team unie qui se donne des conseils et se permet de prendre la parole pour réexpliquer les choses en Tamil quand quelqu’un ne comprend pas (bon faut avouer qu’ils ne sont que 7). Et enfin je vois des progrès tous les jours, sur la prise en main de l’outil, sur la compréhension des sujets, sur l’utilité de faire une conf call... (Alors que moi je sais pas trop. Je pense que la semaine prochaine c’est eux qui vont m’expliquer pourquoi on fait ca…) On est en deuxième semaine de mise en place et ils respectent déjà quasiment l’ensemble des commitments. Certains commitments restent compliqués à mettre en place mais la volonté de bien faire est là. Et je crois que c’est ce qui compte pour moi. Durant mes études en E-learning, j’ai quand même mis un an pour réussir à rendre mes devoirs à l’heure, je ne vais pas commencer à leur faire la leçon. Surtout qu’encore aujourd’hui je mets une semaine pour répondre à certains mails quand je n’oublie pas … alors ne parlons même pas de la forme. En tant que coach j’aurais du mal à dire si cela a changé mon approche parce que je n’ai pas vraiment eu le temps de m'approcher. Mais le digital amène clairement un nouveau cadre, une nouvelle façon de voir la pédagogie. Le rapport entre la team et soi est différent. Les nouveaux outils qu’on développe amèneront une nouvelle dimension dans le post-lockdown et pourront peut être même créer de nouveaux computer trainings sur le télétravail. Affaire à suivre... Prochaine étape de ce coaching 2.0 : mener des débats, faire des présentations et qu’un Youth puisse leader de bout en bout un videocall. New coach, freshly arrived in Chennai in February, I was just starting to get the hang of my mission and understand my work when lockdown happened. So we closed the center, end of the game with no date defined for the return game. In reaction to this crisis, LP4Y decided to go ahead and not stand still. They looked for new ways of work and solutions to continue the empowerment of youth in their professional integration. The most common way for our highly connected occidental mind, would naturally be the digital way. From my point of view, there are two reasons for that, on one hand, we could say that our baby bottles were filled with computer stuff, we handled IPad and smartphones since the first hair on our skull. On the other side, every youth that we meet here has a smartphone in the hand long before he has a job. So, we can easily jump to the following conclusion: what a beautiful tool they have, why not using it? Here starts our Journey in a new form of teaching and training based on a digital approach. The famous and worldwide known E-learning! Coming from a 4-year E-learning course, I was able to get a glimpse of the benefits, the drifts and the limits of this pedagogy. Well, here we start with the basics of E-learning pedagogy, meaning the 101 training: how to answer a video call and how to mute the microphone? We start with simple and easy rules: try to be in a quiet place, try to have charge on your phone, try to be on time, try to have data, send you work to the coach at the end of the day, etc… But everything went upside-down at first. These rules that we think simple became in this context a pretty serious challenge. It’s very difficult for the youth to find a quiet place when all the family is in lockdown, to charge their phone when electricity shutdowns are quite regular or even having data for a video-call is hard to get. Despite all this, when everyone gets the point of muting his microphone when someone else is talking. We have the feeling that we are witnessing a UN conf call worthy, full of secret agents with their earphones plugged in their ears and their little mike in their hands. More seriously, it is very impressive to see how the team adapts to this new tool that I introduced without having consulted them before. Firstly, one youth, Sudhir, that’s his name, took the initiative to create digital attendance and propose a commitment board, I was personally not even thinking of implementing those tools. Secondly they listen and help each other even more than they used to do it in the training room, and small clans just disappeared. We can see one full team united where the most experimented give advice to the beginners, and even take the mike to explain something in Tamil when the information doesn’t pass on properly in English (I have to admit that I have only 7 youths and it helps) Finally, we can see progress every day, on taking over the tools, the comprehension of the subjects treated, the usefulness of the conf call. I feel that I’m sometimes more lost than them, and I feel that in a couple of weeks they will give me a lesson on the purpose of E-learning and E-doing. It’s only the second week since we started E-learning and they are already following all the commitments. Some commitments are harder than others to stock to, but they are showing motivation to follow and respect them. And I think that for me it’s the most important aspect. During my studies, I was a full-time E-learning trainee and motivation and commitment was one of the tough parts. It took me almost one year to send back on time my assignments, so I won’t be the one who blames them. Especially when today I sometimes still need one week to answer an Email when I don’t forget… let’s not even talk about content and form. As a coach, I will hesitate to say if E-learning has changed my pedagogical approach. I didn’t really have time to try another approach before lockdown. But E-learning clearly brings a new frame, a new dimension to training. The new tools that we are developing during this time will certainly bring new assets in the post-lockdown and, who knows, maybe LP4Y will have new computer training on the teleworking. Stay tuned… Next step of the 2.0 coaching: start some online debates, do speeches and individual presentations and lead a conf call from start to end.

Rojina Tamang,17 years old, Entrepreneur Step, Life Project Center Kathmandu, Nepal At what age did you start to draw? I started to draw when I was at school at 6 years old. What makes you start to draw? I don’t know exactly why I started to draw or paint but my brother and my father know how to draw so it comes from my family! Also my pasteur draws very well. How did you learn to draw? I learn by myself. I started by drawing simple flowers. Why do you like to draw? I like to draw because my dream is to be an artist. What do you like the most to draw? What I like drawing the most are people, cartoons and different flowers.

Su Na Di Oo, 18yo, Autonomy Step, Myanmade Program, Life Project Center Hlaing Thar Yar, Myanmar My name is Su Na Di Oo, I am 18 years old, I live in Hlaing Thar Yar, Yangon and in LP4Y I am in Autonomy step. My qualities are Listening, Friendly, Polite, Open-minded and Respect each other. My skills are Dancing, Negotiation, Swimming and Customer relationship. My weaknesses are not very confident, Shy, Afraid. It is ok for me but a little difficult for relationships with each other. Now I am at home. I take care of my grandmother. She always says "You don't leave my side and you don't go outside, stay with me". I'm always sad for her because she is not healthy, but I'm happy because I think she still loves me. I'm very happy. She doesn't want to leave me. I love her so much. I live together in her room.💜😁💜 Today is Myanmar New Year Day. But with COVID-19, I feel a little worried for my family, my friends and people. I want to take care of you. I miss you my friends and coaches💜😑💗. You can feel my love and caring with this delicious Burmese New Year Recipe, it is called Mu ant lone raypaw: 1- Mix Rice flour and Wheat flour with a bit of water. Make little balls and insert chocolate inside (it is a special type of Myanmar Chocolate, it is very special, only in Myanmar!) 2- Drop the balls one by one in boiling water, they sink to the bottom. Once they start floating, they are ready! 3- Rinse them with cold water and wait for them to be cold 3- For a more beautiful effect, put them in a coconut shell and shred some fresh coconut on top. You're all set! Enjoy! See more recipes by the Youth >>here

Laura Baptiste, 25 years old, Coach Howrah Program 2 Life Project Center Howrah, Kolkata, India [English version below] Dans mes lointains souvenirs de chimiste en blouse blanche trop grande sur ma paillote de lycéenne, un catalyseur, en français dans le texte, c’est la substance qui provoque ou accélère une réaction et modifie ses composantes à son seul contact. Tout part de là. « A son seul contact ». Là réside toute la puissance et l’efficacité du catalyseur qui propage une énergie bienfaisante, suffisamment génératrice pour toucher et entraîner dans son élan celles et ceux qui l’entourent. Pour quelqu’un qui adore modeler le monde de métaphores, cela fait forcément écho en moi et plus encore en mission sur mon terrain de jeu préféré : Howrah. Être un coach catalyst, c’est choisir puis décanter l’information pour soi tout d’abord, puis apprivoiser les bons termes et les bonnes tournures de phrases qui feront « tilt » dans les esprits. Les ampoules s’allument au-dessus des têtes, et les jeunes assimilent d’abord l’information puis comprennent soudain, et c’est là que la magie opère, qu’ils peuvent avoir eux aussi un impact, devenir eux-mêmes catalysts et agir dans leur entourage, qu’ils peuvent être un maillon de la chaîne qu’ils n’auraient jamais imaginé prolonger. Ils se sentent acteurs, considérés et prennent conscience qu’on leur fait, peut-être pour la première fois, confiance. A leur tour et à leur contact, l’environnement de chacun.e se verra alors transformé grâce à la générosité de leurs mots et au partage. Les idées ne seront pas pour autant uniquement répétées mais digérées et c’est là aussi toute la beauté du défi : ne pas simplement reporter mot pour mot mais s’approprier un message et le transmettre à sa manière. Être un « Youth » catalyst, c’est aussi faire dévaler et entraîner cette boule de neige, déjà bien arrondie, jusqu’à l’un des piliers qui façonne LP4Y, celui des partenaires. Car ce sont eux, les vrais « reporters sur le terrain de leur vie », et quoi de plus gratifiant de voir que cette confiance cultivée en amont les emporte pour faire fleurir des champs de témoignages inspirants et d’idées novatrices. C’est tout un écosystème qui prends alors confiance en eux. Un écosystème qui transperce les frontières du bidonville, et qui au travers de la rencontre, des témoignages partagés, rend possible la mise en place d’initiatives plus durables et collaboratives, pour les jeunes et par les jeunes. Tout cela requiert de l’énergie, une énergie qu’on apprend à orienter et concentrer avec le temps, pour entraîner cette réaction en cascade, cet effet boule de neige et ne pas rompre la magie en chemin, ou ne pas tomber dans le piège d’un mauvais téléphone arabe. Chacun des piliers investis dans l’exercice doit pouvoir puiser dans le catalyst précédent l’énergie nécessaire à la propagation du message. L’élan peut donner le tournis, certes, mais il faut garder en tête la beauté du résultat et l’idée que tout seul on va plus vite, mais ensemble on va plus loin. Être catalyst LP4Y c’est, pour finir et selon moi, faire le lien entre les forces, c’est mutualiser les idées et transformer tout ce que l’on fait à la puissance « Youth ». As far as I can remember, when I was a high school student in my too-large white lab-coat on my lab-bench, a “catalyseur” here written in French, is what is triggering or simply accelerating a reaction in order to alter it right after the only and sole catalyser’s contact. Here we are. “The only and single contact”. In here lies the power and the efficiency of the catalyst that is spreading a beneficial energy, generative enough to touch and to bring into its wake the people around. For someone who loves to shape the world with metaphors, this will definitely resonate in me and even more during my mission on my favourite playground : Howrah city ! To be a catalyst as a coach is all about choosing and decanting the information for yourself first and then taming it in order to use the right terms and the right sentence structure that will click in their minds. The bulbs are lighting all of a sudden above the heads and the Youth, after having digested the information, will suddenly understand, and here is the magic trick, that they can create an impact as well. They can become catalysts themselves and take a big action in their own environment. They are able to become a part of the chain, the same one they would have never thought they could continue before. They feel like they are actors, they feel considered and they take heed of the trust we assign them with, maybe for the first time. Again and in turn, thanks to their only touch and contact, their environment will therefore be transformed with the help of the generosity of their words that they share. However, the ideas are not necessarily repeated from a foolish mouth : they are also processed and here is the second beauty in the challenge ! Indeed, we are not witnessing a simple word-for-word communication but a smart and in-their- own-style message. To be a catalyst as a Youth is also all about sending a snowball in your tracks (that is already a big one, to be honest) down to the hill of one LP4Y pillar that is to say : the partners. The Youth are actually the real “reporters in their life arena” and what can be more rewarding than seeing the trust we planted in you some time ago is now blooming to result in fields full of inspiring testimonies and innovative ideas ? The entire ecosystem is thus trusting them. An ecosystem that is crossing the slum areas borders, and in which we can put in place even more sustainable and collaborative ideas for the Youth (and by the Youth!), by means of meetings and priceless sharing times. For all this is required a huge amount of energy. The kind of energy that we learn to create, to angle and to concentrate over time, in order to generate this chain reaction, the snowball effect and to avoid losing the magic on the way while not falling into the trap of a bad “Chinese whispers” game. Every single pillar involved in the action should draw from the previous catalyst its energy needed to convey the message. The consequent burst can make you dizzy, true, but we should keep in mind the beauty of the results and the idea that all alone we go faster, but together, we go further ! To my mind and to finally conclude, being a LP4Y catalyst is being the link between powers and strengths. This is all about transforming and raising what we do to the power of Youth !

Aileen Salin, Coach Community Champions of Change 2 Life Project Center, Chennai, India The lockdown has been for us a perfect opportunity to get to know our direct neighbors better. At block 52, the one in front of the center, two families spend most of their time outside - cooking, playing and chatting - on what has now become an extension of their apartment. Lockdown or not, the people of Kannagi Nagar live outside. Not surprising when you know that they live in 15m². So, outside of the fact that the men of the building are not working anymore, the lockdown has not changed their life habits so much. On our end, things are quite different : we used to leave the center as much as we could to discover our city, meet our friends or play volleyball. Today, we spend all of our time at home (obviously) and we are craving for human contact ! Without even realising it, we have hence settled a new ritual: we spend ages on our terrasse, observing and interacting with our neighbours from 52 Tsunami. They seem to like this new relationship as much as we do. To be honest, we don’t have much to say to each other and the communication is difficult as their english is not much better than our tamil. But we try, we guess, we laugh and step by step we are starting to know them better. Today, we know most of their names, their job and who is married to who. We also know who are the funny ones, the shy ones, the angry ones… Among these 2 families there is the amazing Dhurga, who joined LP4Y 3 months ago with her little Shabrish. Luckily, this cute baby helped us to break the ice : when you don’t have anything to say, a funny face addressed to a baby followed by a laugh for the parents will always do the job ! On top of being so kind and welcoming to us, they are incredibly beautiful. Hence, I was happy that they accepted to participate in my photoshoot last week. With Clarisse, we thought it could be a good way to show how the lockdown looks like in Kannagi Nagar, without miserabilism and far from the images portrayed in the media. Of course, it does not mean that life is not tough for these 2 families who can now only count on Dhurga to bring money home. But life goes on and it is probably not the first hard time these families had to face. As a reminder, we are located in Tsunami : the entire area has been built to welcome the families who have lost their house (and maybe some loved ones) when a tsunami hit the east coast of India in 2004. These pictures are also for us a way to always remember this new funny relationship that we now trease very much. When all this will be finished, we plan to install bamboo fences all around the terrace to gain some privacy : today we know that the bamboo fence will definitely need a window!

Asmita Magar, 22yo, Autonomy Step, Life Project Center Sinamangal, Kathmandu, Nepal See the answer of Mary Joyce Parco, 22 years old, Responsibility Step, Fashion 4 Youth program, Payatas, Manila, Philippines >> here See the answer of Saraswati Soren, 26yo, Management Step, Green Village Kathmandu, Nepal >> here See the answer of Khin Pa Pa Myo, 22yo, Management Step, Cotton 4 You program, her sister Khin Tazin Aye, 20yo, Responsibility Step, Myanmade program and their grandmother Daw Bo Ma, 73yo - LPC Hlaing Thar Yar, Myanmar >> here

Revie Jayonan - 25yo - Mindanao Community Mobilizer Iligan & Cagayan de Oro - Philippines

[English version below] Une mer calme n’a jamais fait un bon marin. Notre centre : un voilier dans la tempête. Les événements se succèdent comme des vagues que nous prenons de plein fouet sans pouvoir reprendre notre souffle. Sarah est partie mais Fanette est de retour après dix jours confinée dans un hôtel. Fièvre, vertiges, maux de tête : elle pensait que c’était le coronavirus, je pensais que c’était le coronavirus, vous pensiez que c’est le coronavirus, ce n’était pas le coronavirus. Notre bateau est donc pris d’assaut par la houle. Chaque vague est une préoccupation, une secousse à envisager. Elles ne sont pas toutes aussi menaçantes mais elles arrivent de tous les côtés. Bateau ? Tempête ? Vent et marée ? Romain, as-tu perdu la tête ? Décortiquons un peu cette métaphore douteuse. Océan Pacifique (Août 2017) - © Romain Mailliu Ces vagues, ce sont les problèmes - disons challenges - des jeunes qui évoluent avec le coronavirus. A ce stade, ce sont généralement des challenges économiques : Le père de Taufiq a perdu son travail, il est le seul à pouvoir ramener de l’argent pour nourrir sa famille ; Les parents de Fikri sont rentrés “au village” pour fuir le virus, il est maintenant à la rue. Ces défis s’ajoutent à notre travail quotidien : Toy ne peut plus venir au centre car il doit aider sa grand mère à ramasser des bouteilles en plastiques pour les revendre ; Fami va donner naissance dans 4 jours et n’a pas assez d’argent pour accoucher à l'hôpital. Vous l’avez compris, ça fait beaucoup de “Challenges”. Dans cet ouragan, l’adversaire le plus dangereux se trouve parfois sous la mer. En effet, un courant puissant nous fait dériver et rend le cap difficile à garder. Il se réveille particulièrement le soir, quand la nuit tombe, et rien ne semble pouvoir l’arrêter. Ce courant, c’est l’information continue sur le coronavirus qui nous agresse jour et nuit. Réseaux sociaux, journaux, télévisions, mails, flyers, visiteurs : impossible de se déconnecter ou de chercher le vrai du faux. J’ai l’impression d’être spammé, assommé par des données qui me tombent dessus sans fin. Alors je garde quelques bribes d’informations, saisies ici ou là, et il m’arrive de les partager à qui veut bien les entendre. Sans le vouloir, j'imagine que je rajoute une couche à l’incompréhension générale. Océan Pacifique (Août 2017) - © Romain Mailliu Moussaillons, il n’y a pas de voilier sans vent, ni de tempête. Ami d’un jour, ennemi du lendemain, le vent est un personnage bipolaire. Son rôle est déterminant quand on entreprend des aventures en mer. Son souffle peut porter notre bateau vers des horizons plus prospères ou le briser puis l’envoyer nourrir les poissons. Blizzard, parfois caresse matinale, il est déroutant. Quand le mistral se lève, les voiles se gonflent et les marins chantent. Ce vent, c’est nos familles en France. Elles jouent une place décisive alors que le virus fait de plus en plus de victimes. C’est la raison qui décide un volontaire à quitter le navire pour rentrer chez lui. La famille comme l’alizé est une source d’énergie inépuisable. Il suffit parfois d’un coup de téléphone de sa part pour dompter les flots ou pour déchirer les voiles… “Vas-tu rentrer en France ? ; félicitations pour ton engagement ! ; es-tu en sécurité ? ; nous sommes fiers de toi ; tu nous manques…” Les mots de nos familles alimentent nos peurs et nos joies. Il faut savoir s’en détacher sans prendre de distance. Le vent est l’ombre de la tempête : quand il se dresse face au soleil, il perd son hostilité. A calm sea has never made a good sailor. March 27, 2020 Our center: a sailboat in the storm. Events follow one another like waves that we take in full force without being able to catch our breath. Sarah is gone but Fanette is back after ten days confined in a hotel. Fever, dizziness, headaches: she thought it was the coronavirus, I thought it was the coronavirus, you think it was the coronavirus, it was not the coronavirus. So our boat is taken over by the swell. Every wave is a concern, a jolt to consider. Not all of them are equally threatening, but they come from all sides. Boat? Storm? Wind and tide? Romain, have you lost your mind? Let's take a little bit of a break from that dubious metaphor. These waves are the problems - let's say challenges - of young people who are evolving with the coronavirus. At this stage, they are usually economic challenges: Taufiq's father has lost his job, he is the only one who can bring back money to feed his family; Fikri's parents have returned "to the village" to flee the virus, he is now on the street. These challenges are added to our daily work: Toy can no longer come to the centre because he has to help his grandmother to collect plastic bottles to sell them; Fami is going to give birth in 4 days and does not have enough money to give birth at the hospital. You get it, that's a lot of "Challenges". In this hurricane, sometimes the most dangerous opponent is under the sea. A strong current causes us to drift and makes it difficult to stay on course. It wakes up especially in the evening, when night falls, and nothing seems to be able to stop it. This current is the continuous information about the coronavirus that attacks us day and night. Social networks, newspapers, television, e-mails, flyers, visitors: it is impossible to disconnect or to look for the true from the false. I feel like I'm being spammed, stunned by data that keeps falling on me endlessly. So I keep a few snippets of information, entered here and there, and sometimes I share its with anyone who wants to hear its. Without meaning to, I imagine that I add a layer to the general incomprehension. Mush, there's no sailboat without wind, and no storm. Friend of one day, enemy of the next, the wind is a bipolar character. Its role is decisive when one undertakes adventures at sea. Its breath can carry our boat to more prosperous horizons or break it down and send it out to feed the fish. Blizzard is sometimes a morning caress, it's confusing. When the mistral wind rises, the sails blow up and the sailors sing. This wind is our families in France. They play a decisive role as the virus claims more and more victims. This is the reason why a volunteer decides to leave the ship to go home. The family, like the trade winds, is an inexhaustible source of energy. Sometimes it only takes a phone call from him to tame the waves or to tear the sails... "Are you going back to France? Congratulations on your commitment! Are you safe? We are proud of you; we miss you..." The words of our families fuel our fears and joys. We must know how to detach ourselves from them without distancing ourselves. The wind is the shadow of the storm: when it rises up against the sun, it loses its hostility.

Gaëlle Muraca, Life Project Center Malwani, Mumbai, Inde I am Gaelle, catalyst since 5 years and half for LP4Y, initially based in Raipur in Chhattisgarh state as Coordinator of the Green Village projects. I was about to end my mission and go for a solidarity bike tour when the coronavirus, the lockdown and co decided to change all my plans as everyone around the world. Expecting a “kind of crisis”, I asked LP4Y to extend my contract for 2 months thinking I would be much more useful here in India than confined in France. And, finally, less than 1 week later, I was called by John with the proposal to cross India the following day early morning in order to help the Youth of the Life Project Center of Malwani in Mumbai that was closed since 2 days already. My travel and arrival until Malwani was indeed very “unique” as it was the last day where the planes were allowed to fly, Mumbai was already in full lockdown, no transportation were allowed,.... I spent like 5 hours in the airport of Raipur watching the screen with blinking “cancelled”, “delayed”, green, red, yellow… The day before, I was talking about it with Albane, my co-catalysts of Raipur, and it let me time to realize again that, definitively, the best way to avoid anger, anxiety and stress is just to accept what Life offers to you, on a plate or with a slap… When you have no expectation and you fully “let it go”, everything happening is welcomed like a new experience, a way for more discovery, a challenge, something you have to learn. It is exactly what happened in my mind, in 3 weeks all my “plans” were canceled… But I was quite peaceful and a bit curious about the “next”, very convinced it was the best place I could be : nearby the Youth and the community needing help. Here we go. The first day already I met 2 of my future (I will name them later) pillars: Saddam and Ashish, 2 STARS, alumni of the very first promotion of Youth in 2017. I started with this meeting to feel the situation: Ashish had an accident in his job, he burned all his elbow with a steel plate freshly cut, everybody in his family lost their job since 2 weeks so no more money to pay the doctor, the medicines and, for sure, no food also. I started to asked my first question about the basic human needs to visualize more: “No coach, we have no more water in Ambujwodi” and “No coach, I don’t have ration card, my family is registered in Borivali where we lived before but after we were moved here…” and “No coach, nobody give food to the community right now… I don’t know the actions existing, it is too fresh, we don’t know, we are not informed, we helped a bit each others in the neighbourhood but nobody has really something to share so it is difficult”. The following day, I met the 20 youth currently “in training”. The plan was to give them their allowance they did not get, to understand deeper the current situation in the slums where they live and to explain them the coming “training online” starting next week. At the end of the day I realized even more how deeply difficult was the life during this lockdown for the communities… No one member of the families still have a job. They were forced to stop or lost their jobs. Some of them had “small savings” the lockdown being applied since already 2 weeks, the savings are already used since long time. Due to the lack of revenues, all the families are suffering from hunger, no drinkable water, no access to basic hygiene currently compulsory like soap and mask and… water. Yes… the employees in charge of the water supply left so the communities of the slums do not have water anymore or they have only 4 minutes a day… for 6 to 14 persons. I started to connect with all the former Youth to be able to listen to them, know about their own situation and help them if I could with some financial support… As soon as I started, I received huge amounts of messages from early morning to late night, from drop out youth and STARS asking for help. All those discussions with the STARS confirmed and deepened what I discovered in only 4 days: no more job, no more revenue, no food, no water, they all went back in few weeks in totally indecent ways of living. I also got to know some disgusting details: more than 90% of them even did not get any salary for their last weeks or months they worked before the lockdown… Trying to get some news of their employers who do not answer to them anymore. At this moment I was between the excitement of meeting this very new community, those youth, hearing their stories, meeting and getting warmly welcomed by the few neighbors and grocery owners I could met in my 2 “outtings” in the week, the happiness to be here for them, I felt at the very right place being able to bring them a bit of help in their distress. But, the pressure was growing, the coming week was becoming more and more blurred : indeed, all the ATMs around were out of cash and my cashbox was almost empty. I had to prioritize the youth currently in training… So, I had to stop helping the STARS until I find another solution or reach to get cash again. The same 2 STARS, Saddam and Ashish, gave me the idea to write a request letter to the local government to help us to get food ration for the STARS meanwhile I find a way to get funds again. On their side, they did a survey in their slum to do a list of the “urgent families” to help with young children who were in crucial situation. So they came in the center, we took all the 98 names of the youth of Malwani and they called during 3 hours them one by one to get their address and be able to make a detailed list. The letter was sent at 6PM, I even found his cellphone number and called him. No answer so I sent a text message to request to take in account my letter. The day after he called me, he received my letter, he will try to do something !! Wahouuu it gave me a lot of energy !! It works ! But, in only a few days, the whole situation changed again, the “poverty” became thick and very perceptible even if I was going out very few times in the week. People were knocking at my door to get help, asking for food, then asking for money, then asking for clothes… They were reading “NGO” on the door, so they were trying… 5, 10 families came everyday staring at me, looking at the kitchen in the back, sometimes not even talking, just putting their hands a bit higher to make me understand... From the 2 beggars I met the week before in the street, I met this time 10 to 15 persons sitting on the floor the head looking at the ground and the hand waiting for some help: families, old persons, disabled ones, children, mother with babies, asking for food, for money, daring at you with shame in their eyes… I was going for shopping to get my “crisis stock of food” as LP4Y guidelines recommended the day before but it broke my heart and I could not buy anything, I observed this unbelievable change that happened in only 4 days, I just walked in this street full of people who became beggars from one week to the other. I went back home with a heavy heart, I was feeling ashamed to have enough food to eat, me alone in my huge center, with water to take shower, clean water to drink, electricity… I could not help them or, if I would do, it was starting to step in something I would not be able to control later. I had to keep my mind fresh : I am alone, I am already not able to help all the youth so I need to focus, to stay safe and to find external help, mobilize around me as I have done since 5 years in LP4Y: “Together we can”. We are not an NGO specialized in crisis situations, but some other NGOs or organisms are, so let’s call them, explain them…The local government answered my call but no actions have come out of this since already 1 week so I had to try others and others until I find. How could I stay waiting for action? I had to provoke it. I read every minute messages from more and more STARS asking for help telling me how they felt in need, abandoned, angry and isolated, their children were getting sick because of the unsafe water they were using for hygiene and to drink: fever, diarrhea, skin diseases... Begging food, eating the old chapati given to the animals by the neighbors to feed their children. No ! Definitively NO! Instead of breaking me down it actually gave me a kind of incredible strength and huge energy : I must find a solution, I must do it, go go GO!!! So, I started to map, to call, to send email, whatsapp messages to all the organizations’ names I could find or hear about. They all wanted to help but no one could really do, or they were too far, or they did not have funds yet, or they were scared of the police… but, they gave me contacts, they spread my request to their own network and their own network spread away again… I found a first temporary solution with a foundation giving cooked food, but the STARS going to catch it were blocked by the police. So, I wrote a letter of derogation, but it did not work. So, the STARS got the idea to use the old uniforms of the Youth to show they were part of a real action. Then, I made some new ideas… with tape to make like “lamination” because we have no more lamination paper. Jugaad as we say in India. And it worked !!! I continued the mobilization early morning to late night… until this 10PM call the day of my birthday on 9th of April ! My birthday gift : a woman who got my contact by a contact of a contact of a contact… Her name is Purvi, she is from AIMS Foundation. She can deliver food ration for 70 families in 3 days!!!! Oooooh… Magic happening! 3 days after, the STARS have organized a small team with even some uncles and fathers of the community who wanted to help, they went to face the police checkpoints, convincing them to let them pass to get food for their own community. It took hours but they reached ! Then, they spent their full night without sleeping to weight and sort the hundreds and hundreds kilos of rice, lentils, sugar, oils and flour. They called me at 7am exhausted but happy and proud of this first achievement that will soon feed many families. Then, they started delivering the food to the former youth house by house, family by family. At 9PM, they finally sent me a voice note and hundreds of pictures : they did it, they were going to sleep now but they did it!!! Yehaaaaaaa! I had tears in the eyes, my heart was beating so loud, I was so proud of them like little soldiers of their community… I called them to tell them that they were incredible and then I let crazy happy messages to all the co-catalysts, former co-catalysts, friends and my relatives who were living this with me at distance and supporting me since 2 weeks, I spread my Joy, I shout of Happiness by phone and I felt a lot of gratitude in me: THANK YOU Universe, God or whoever, just Thank You ! I went to sleep and for the first time since I arrived I did not do any nightmares. WE DID IT !!!!

The youth of the LPC Payatas challenged each others through short tiktok dancing videos. They offer you to try it too! Juliana Bacquial, 18 yo, Autonomy Step - Mary Ann Lava, 22 yo, Responsibility Step - Angelica Tarrago, 21 yo, Management Step - Jemma Rich Forcadilla, 20 yo, Management Step - Glydel Ignacio, 20 yo, Autonomy Step PayataSport Program , Life Project Center Payatas, Manila, Philippines