In the Marne department, two pharmacies belonging to the Wellpharma network collect parapharmacy products from their patients, in order to redistribute them to charities, such as SOS Babies or Emmaüs. In the Ardennes and Haute-Marne, too, we are mobilizing.
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In Reims, Céline Verreaux has been a pharmacist since 2005. First settled in rue du Barbâtre, she moved her dispensary to boulevard de la Paix in 2015. This is where she collects parapharmacy products for people in need. difficulty. She belongs to the network Wellpharma which brings together pharmacists. A group which, a year ago, launched the “solidarity medicine cabinet” operation. “I mainly collect hygiene products that my patients buy “, she says.”Some do it every month. It can be baby bottles, teats, physiological serum to wash the nose, or even cotton squares. Each small solidarity cabinet bears the first name of those who made it possible to fill them“. These medicine cabinets are then distributed to associations. The choice of the pharmacist from Reims fell on SOS Babies.
27 kilometers from Reims, in the Marne, Catherine Biard and her partner, Gaëlle Berehouc, installed at the Pharmacie de l’Arnes, in Bètheniville for more than 20 years, are also participating in the operation. “Its very important“, explains Catherine Biard.”Some cannot afford toothpaste, shower gel and baby products, or hand cream. This is the reason why we collect it from our patients“. The cupboards are filling up, and it is to the Emmaüs association that the two pharmacists are preparing to hand over their collection.
The “solidarity medicine cabinet” operation has just celebrated its first anniversary.
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© Wellpharma
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Some cannot afford toothpaste, shower gel, and baby products, or hand cream.
38 pharmacies mobilized in the Grand Est
Moselle, Vosges, Meurthe-et-Moselle, everywhere in the Grand Est region, collection has been set up a year ago now. “The creation of the “solidarity medicine cabinet” was part of our positioning », Explains Régine Martin. She is Director of Marketing and Communications for Wellpharma. “Wellpharma was created in 2014. It is a brand of pharmacists from the Objectif Pharma group, itself a subsidiary of the Welcoop Cooperative, specializing in health. We have around a hundred pharmacies in our network, all over France. Benevolence and mutual aid are strong values for us“. So a year ago” the solidarity medicine cabinet “was launched. The good news is that after a year of existence, this solidarity operation is sustainable.
In the Grand Est region, 38 pharmacies have therefore collected thousands of products over the past year. 21 local associations helping the most disadvantaged were thus able to redistribute hygiene products to people in precarious situations. The Restos du Cœur and Secours Populaire were able to benefit from it, but not only.
Some 500 families are followed by this association, in the Marne.
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© SOS Babies
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For infants in the Marne
When he received the partnership offer from Céline Verreaux, who is a pharmacist in Reims, Didier Hauguenois did not hesitate for a second. “I immediately accepted“, says the director of the association SOS Babies, created in 1990, in Reims, by Thérèse Guérin.”These products are safer, healthier and more attractive. It is very interesting for us who help families in difficulty, whose babies are at most 15 months old. Formula, wipes, everything that revolves around the infant interests us “.
In the Marne, SOS Babies, which also distributes food aid and equipment, follows around 500 families in very precarious situations. For them, Didier Hauguenois goes to the pharmacy once every three months to collect the donations. The association’s largest branch is located in Reims, but there are also some in Epernay, Châlons-en-Champagne, Vitry-le-François, Suippes and Fismes.
The director of the SOS Babies association which has signed agreements with the Salvation Army, the French Red Cross and the Integrated Reception and Orientation Service, noted that with the Covid 19 epidemic, customers were perhaps a little less mobilized around this operation. That it becomes sustainable is excellent news for him and all the families that follow his association. A new chain of local solidarity was thus set up.
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