Briefs, boxers, panties and bras. Throughout the winter, the association Le Car Podium, based in Hellemmes in the metropolis of Lille, organizes the Briefs party, a major campaign to collect underwear for homeless people. “It makes you smile, “The slip festival”, it’s true that on paper it’s quite sales, it’s funny, for a subject that is not because we are still talking about great precariousness“, underlines Charlyse Boucard, member of the association.
A catchy title for a solidarity initiative which aims to collect a thousand underwear by the end of March. To achieve this, the association installs cardboard ballot boxes in various places in the metropolis, bars, universities, businesses, neighborhood town halls and social centers. Since the start of the operation, nearly 500 coins have already been donated.
Underwear is a rare commodity for structures that come to the aid of the most vulnerable. The Car Podium initiative supplies the changing room for emergency accommodation of the CMAO (Coordination Mobile Accueil Orientation) and the structures that carry out the patrols. “Without Briefs party, that we do not have, says Sara Lobel of CMAO-Samu Social. Underwear is something that is very rarely given, if ever given. I think that this refers to a garment that is attached to the order of the intimate, so it is true that we are often in difficulty when it comes to underwear since the only donations we receive remain focused on pants, sweaters or t-shirts. “
The Briefs party, it is also solidarity concerts organized in bars in the metropolis. A first took place in December and two others are scheduled for February and March. Entrance ticket: a slip, of course.