In this difficult period of health and social crisis, how to fight against withdrawal and individualism? In Rezé, a group of women have been mobilizing for 3 years to restore life and sparkle to their Château district. On a voluntary basis, they organize cleaning and waste collection actions, among other things. A call for good citizenship to recreate the link.
It’s been a long time since the Château de Rezé was razed to make way for a social housing district. We only kept the name! Once a week the “little ants” roam the streets of the Château district.
A stone’s throw from the Jean Perrin high school, with a garbage bag in one hand and a garbage clip in the other. “What is that ? said one, lthe sauces that go with the sandwiches”, her friend replies with a sigh.
“It’s the wind that brings it all, that’s what they say”, laughs another ant. “We didn’t find any bottles today, but there are laughing gas cartridges lying around everywhere”deplores Christiane Cochelin, member of the Fourmis du Château group
These little ants, that’s the name of their group, put their hearts into cleaning the parks and streets of their neighborhood, which are regularly invaded by rubbish.
“We are lucky today, there is nothing around the waste container, often they leave everything in front, when it is empty”notes an ant.
A voluntary action organized between neighbours, to meet the inhabitants and merchants of the district, tired of seeing their place of life deteriorating, and incivility reigning there.
The pharmacist, delighted, came to encourage them, “Sometimes we say to ourselves after the weekend that it’s not possible!”
If they act, in parallel with the regular collections of Nantes Métropole, the Rezéennes ants pick up several kilos of rubbish, up to 50 on their own and in 2 hours.
“We want to live in a neighborhood where life is good, we want to be in a gay, clean neighborhood. I have a seven-year-old son, I don’t want him to grow up in a dirty neighborhood”, says Julie Lejallé. Sylvie Leroy affirms her desire to live normally in her neighborhood, “When you say you live in the Château de Rezé district, people hold their noses, it’s pestiferous. There are a lot of positive things about this district, not everything is bad there”.
Proof of this is the other actions they have put in place to brighten up the daily life of the inhabitants. With colors, sweet words, and supports.
Sylvie resumes: “Unicity the young people who come to help us on Wednesdays, did a neighborhood survey, we collected the words, we post them in the neighborhood. We want cheerfulness, to wake people up, to get them to talk to each other. Often they come to us, to tell their little miseries about things like that, and one thing leads to another, we recreate links”.
The courageous Ants of the Château de Rezé do not collect for the pleasure of picking up rubbish carried by the wind, but to knit together living, and transform this district where the inhabitants accumulate difficulties, into an active and social anthill.
To your garbage bags! The Ants of the Castle call on all volunteers to join them on Wednesdays, at 2 p.m. at Parc Paul Allain, in Rezé.
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