La Baraque à Frat ‘, the fraternity in the heart of villages for isolated people

In fact of hut, it is about a mini-bus, camper van or converted van and the Frat ‘, it is the diminutive of fraternity. The goal: to meet isolated people and offer them a time of sharing and discussion. Set up by the association Les Petits Frères des Pauvres, this system exists in several French departments.

In Haute-Savoie, it began last July on the territory of the community of municipalities of Chablais Val d’Abondance. A still very rural, even mountainous area where some people live alone, without means of transport, in places where there are no neighbors, no shops, no services.

This is the case of Sophie, 89, whose house is 5 km from the village of Abondance. Hervé, a local taxi, comes to pick her up to take her to the premises of the medico-social relay where she finds a dozen people who like her, live independently but alone. Here, for an afternoon, they meet to talk, sing or dance with the volunteers. “You can see on their faces the joy they have to find each other, to be together, to have things to say and share. It is very important”, notes Florence Renard, manager of the home help sector in rural areas.

In this department, the Baraque à Frat ‘passes once a month, but in other regions, the pace is more sustained as in Cambrésis (North) where the barracks move to the village square at a rate of 3 to 5 days a week.

Each year, the Little Brothers of the Poor carries out a survey on loneliness and isolation by systematically asking people over 60 years of age the most effective action to fight against isolation. Their response is always the same: maintaining local services and shops.

At a time when itinerant trucks are making a comeback by offering all possible services (from bookstores to beauty treatments, including bulk foodstuffs), the existence of a non-commercial truck that goes to people isolated therefore seems more necessary than ever. It is a way of making their lives easier, of maintaining the autonomy at home desired by all but often difficult to implement.