Emmaus in Sweden

A discussion with Charlotte Wester, national delegate for Sweden on the board of Emmaus Europe.

Can you tell us about how Emmaus began in Sweden?

It all started when a few people from Sweden heard about Abbé Pierre’s work and travelled to France to work alongside him for a time. Following his example they formed the first Emmaus group in Lund, situated in the southern part of Sweden, in 1959.

But compared to other countries the first groups in Sweden focused more on giving hope to young adults by sending volunteers to India and South America.

Almost 50 years later, a joint initiative of some groups and individuals within the Emmaus movement, such as Birgitta Göranson Iliste (from Swallows India Bangladesh) and Christer Johansson (chair of Emmaus Sweden), decided to gather the Swedish groups that shared the same ideas under one umbrella. In 2008, Emmaus Sweden was created and was made up of 10 Swedish organisations, all working in the Emmaus spirit.

Before 2008 some of the Swedish member groups of Emmaus International had lost their connection and were less involved in the international movement. The reasons behind this varied and were at times ideological, at others more practical. Emmaus in Sweden wanted to be a network and serve as a bridge for our movement, no matter if our partner groups were members of Emmaus International or not. Today, four of the nine Swedish groups are full members of the international movement and two are trial members. But we are now trying to reconnect by collaborating with the Finnish as part of a study circle on the founding texts of Emmaus International, working alongside our neighbour, the President of Emmaus Europe!

What activities are led by Emmaus in Sweden?

Emmaus in Sweden is one of the largest stakeholders in the entire movement for the collection of second-hand clothes and goods. In 2020, for example, we collected 6,000 tonnes of clothes. In total, around 180 stakeholders are involved in Emmaus Sweden.

The Swedish groups * used to co-organise an annual solidarity sale for the benefit of Emmaus International. It was an opportunity for us to raise awareness about our international struggles and to support solidarity amongst the Emmaus groups all across the globe. However, in recent years and especially since the pandemic, it has been difficult for us to co-organise any such events. Each of the groups have been arranging their own solidarity sales. The good thing is that we have been able to continue with these solidarity initiatives.

The groups in Sweden unite to defend values of the movement. For example, we have joined forces to shed light on the occupations in Western Sahara (by Morocco) and Palestine (by Israel). We have mainly led lobbying initiatives on this topic: writing articles/books and organising campaigns in our shops. We have also worked together on the issues of migration and fast fashion.

What are the challenges facing the groups in Sweden?

One challenge for the Swedish Emmaus groups is the impact of more competition not just from other non-profit organisations but also from private companies profiting from second hand. For some groups, the need to put much more effort into the collecting of clothes and goods, for example with visual merchandising and marketing, has been challenging sometimes. One important role of Emmaus in Sweden is to provide a platform to share as much knowledge as possible, to unite our forces and to be more efficient together.

Another challenge worth mentioning: how can we, as Emmaus groups in Sweden, strengthen our work on reuse? Today, overconsumption is threatening the future of our planet. As a movement, our ambition is to propose another model for consumption, based on reuse and repair, while supporting solidarity initiatives to help the most vulnerable. As stakeholders in the sustainability sector we need to contribute by sharing our knowledge and influencing debates, notably highlighting the advantages of slow fashion.

How have things been going since the health crisis and how did you adapt to the situation?

All the groups suffered due to the pandemic and had their own way of coping. Many of the groups have focused on adapting their shops and how they are organised, in accordance with the restrictions. Emmaus Sweden has monitored the situation and reached out to the groups, offering them support.

According to Birgitta Göranson Iliste, board member of Swallows India Bangladesh, her group has been successful in adapting their very programme-based work. Employees have mainly worked from home, leading to an evolution of the ways of meeting. Travel as part of their internship programme has been put on hold and the exchanges were conducted online via virtual study visits and digital exercises. Most of their work has been able to continue in some forms.

An important part of this adaptation process has been the support provided by the Swedish government (and also, in some cases, other structures). Since the pandemic struck, it has been possible to postpone tax payments and to get furlough funds from the state, which has made a big difference.

News Sweden

Emmaus Iasi: an ingenious way of reusing old desks

Within Emmaus we’re great at adapting objects and reusing them in all kinds of innovative ways. Another great idea has recently emerged within the movement: a Romanian group has made two bedrooms in a hangar out of old desks!

A few months ago a company donated a large number of desks to Emmaus Iasi. Rather than selling them the group decided to reuse these desks in order to create two bedrooms for two of our companions. Dan, a joiner, has been coordinating this project. The legs of the desks were welded together to create the frame for the bedrooms whilst the tables of the desks were then added to create the bases for the walls.

This work will help to improve the level of comfort at the Belvedere. This agroecology project has evolved over the years. When the land was bought in 2003 the objective here was to produce food for the community and for the animals but the site now also has a social aspect, a commercial dimension and a more educational focus. The project includes an educational farm which is open to students/pupils as well as families.

The renovation continues at the site, led by Florin (co-leader of the group) and his team. Work on the electrics is moving forward and the shop is now starting to take shape. Viorel and Costel, the two companions who are going to live here, will soon be nicely settled in!

Circular economy / The environment News Romania

Emmaus in France

Interview with Annick Berthier, outgoing national delegate for France on the regional board of Emmaus Europe, alongside the new delegate, Pierre-Yves Lenglart.

Tell us in your own words about how Emmaus started out in France.

There was ONE MAN at the origin of Emmaus, Abbé Pierre.

One man who then brought another man on board, then 10 more, then 100 more, then thousands of other men and women working together to defend the cause of the poorest and most vulnerable.

For the curious minds amongst you who would like to find out more, the website of Emmaus International looks back at the origin of our international movement.

What different activities/initiatives are led by Emmaus in France?

To give you a few figures Emmaus in France is 240 groups that are members of Emmaus Europe and a total of 480 sales areas. Some of the groups have several sales areas, up to 4 in fact. To give you an idea of the size of the movement in France, we have 6,893 companions (18% of whom are women) and 13,000 volunteers who are a key part of Emmaus in France! In 2020, 288,000 tonnes of merchandise were collected, a figure which has risen by 42% in the last 10 years. Of these 288,000 tonnes 45% is reused, 50% is recycled and only 5% is thrown away.

Our activities have changed a lot over the last 72 years! Emmaus started with the creation of the communities. The capacity and quality of the accommodation we provide has improved over time. We now have 120 Emmaus communities in France! In recent years we have observed a diversification of the economic models with the creation of many new activities: solidarity shops, organic shops, vegetable farming, etc. Alongside the community model other types of Emmaus groups have developed over the years. Get back to work schemes have been a growing presence on the Emmaus landscape here in France. More and more experiments have been launched: pilot initiatives and spin-off initiatives, notably in the sectors of new technologies, environmental protection, equal rights and protection of the most vulnerable.

Our traditional activities to provide housing and offer social initiatives are still a key part of what we do, notably via the access to housing initiatives and the advocacy work led by the Abbé Pierre Foundation both in France and abroad. Other initiatives include our access to dignified housing activities and the emergency housing provided by Emmaus Solidarity.

The activities led by the Emmaus groups in France are diverse and continue to branch out as the years pass by. New groups with new ideas continue to emerge. It is hard to list all of our initiatives here because Emmaus is always on the move!

What challenges are the French Emmaus groups currently facing?

The French groups had to overcome the health crisis by being resilient, just like everyone else. The closures of our sales areas led to a drop of income but this was partially offset by support from the French State and by donations from the general public.

The health crisis further outlined, to those who were still unaware, the situation of rampant poverty we are currently struggling with in France. Lots of “little jobs”, notably for young people, were lost, temporary contracts were terminated and a lot of black market work disappeared, notably for the undocumented. This situation is very concerning.

In terms of our economic activities the French groups have also had to deal with increased competition in the recycling and reuse sector. Second-hand is fashionable at the moment, notably amongst young people, both as a new consumption model and as a cheaper option for those who lack the resources to always buy new. More and more second-hand object websites are being created and major brands are launching special second-hand areas in their shops…All of these stakeholders are helping to spread the message and force us to continue to innovate!

The French groups, especially our communities, host a significant amount of immigrants who have an irregular immigration status and who are often called “undocumented persons”. A lot of these people are homeless or live in makeshift camps. Their arrival in the Emmaus groups has changed the landscape of the groups as most of these people do not wish to stay with Emmaus for the long term as a lot of our companions used to. This means we will have to change the way we work.

How have things been going for you since the Covid outbreak and how have you adapted to the situation?

Covid-19 led to us being more careful with hygiene, trying to respect all of the health measures recommended by the authorities. The pandemic meant we sometimes had to close our sales areas but the groups took this seriously, adapted well and our activities have now bounced back!

France News

Emmaus Lublin: success for our solidarity pizzeria!

This Polish community diversified its activities recently by opening an Italian/Turkish restaurant. This new adventure has been a great success and Zbigniew Drążkowski, the group leader, and Ela Guc, admin manager, have been telling us all about it.

We decided to create a pizzeria in May 2014. At the start it seemed like something a bit different and we ourselves thought it was a little bit crazy! But we started talking about it at board level, with our colleagues and with the companions. We looked at the pros and cons and we calculated the costs, the staff needs, how we could organise it and the likelihood of success, amongst other things. After two months we organised a meeting of the entire community: the companions, the staff members and the boards of our three organisations (the foundation, the association and the cooperative). The debate was followed by an anonymous vote, open to all no matter their position in our group (just under 50 people in total). But despite the concerns outlined during the debate 100% of the votes were in favour of going ahead with the pizzeria!

We thus started to implement the project. We rented a premises, we did all of the technical and technological documentation required of us and we got the green light from the authorities. We did the majority of the construction work ourselves – some of the money came from our own funds and some of it came from the Labour Department – and then we equipped the site. We chose the name Al lago by Ivo (“By the Lake, By Ivo”) as a tribute to the famous chef who has been working as our partner on this project).

A famous Italian chef living in Lublin, Ivo Violante, provided us with 2 weeks of training on how to prepare pizzas, salads and pastas. In parallel another chef, David Reiser, trained the team on Turkish cuisine (kebabs, tortillas, pitas). 13 March 2015 was our big opening day. Fortunately Ivo was there working with us for the first weekend because we wouldn’t have been able to do it without him… Even after just a few weeks the local newspapers were already ranking us as the best pizzeria in Lublin, a town of almost 400,000 people. We still lead the way and we are now trying to widen our menu whilst always keeping an eye on the quality of the products we buy by purchasing from an Italian wholesaler. We continue to try to improve the conditions for our customers. During the pandemic we couldn’t have any customers eating inside the pizzeria, of course, but our income only dropped by a very small amount thanks to takeaway orders. 12 people work in the pizzeria on a rotating basis, half of them are members of the community whilst the rest of the staff are mainly students.

Last year, in May 2020, the premises for our pizzeria was put up for sale so we took this opportunity to buy the entire property – in addition to the restaurant the property came with a living area and a nice garden. We borrowed 110,000 euros for this purchase from a fund for the development of social enterprises (it was almost interest-free) and the remaining amount of 37,000 euros was covered by the pizzeria itself. We now have 7-8 companions living in this property.

Thanks to the pizzeria project we have been able to diversify our income-generating activities as well as being able to teach some of the companions a new trade and to offer more housing space. We have a few concerns with the pizzeria at the moment during this uncertain period but this project provides us with great satisfaction. We have now renamed the pizzeria Al lago by Emmaus!

News Poland