the SOS Amitié call center mobilized all Christmas night

For the volunteers of the SOS Amitié association, Christmas night is a night like any other. The listening platform remains active and receives numerous calls.

The national listening help service, SOS Amitié, was active on Sunday December 24, like every day of the year, 24 hours a day. Despite the holiday season, not everyone is necessarily in good spirits at the highest. Some people may have dark thoughts. To respond to them, the association’s listeners remained mobilized all night.

No Christmas decorations or champagne in this call center in Paris: nothing suggests that it is December 24. It may be New Year’s Eve, but the calls keep coming to Constance’s station: “SOS Friendship good evening…”

The feeling of loneliness

The subject of New Year’s Eve is not systematically mentioned: “You have your son (…) You form a family. What time does he arrive? (…) In the meantime, are you going to have dinner?” The listener never broaches the subject on his own, but regularly ends up coming up in the conversation, explains Constance, 28 years old: “Sometimes it’s a personal problem that has nothing to do with Christmas, but it can also be the main topic of conversation to talk to us about suffering that is linked to Christmas. It can be a feeling of loneliness which is linked to the absence of a particular person.

And it’s not just isolated people who call on New Year’s Eve. “There are also those who feel alone; who may be surrounded by many people but, even with those around them, they think that they cannot say what they have to say, explains Laurent Le Botèrve is president of SOS Amitié Paris Île-de-France. So they have this feeling of loneliness, they need to be able to share it with someone and it’s not with those around them that they can do it and so that’s why they call us.”

Around forty listeners throughout France

To pick up the phone, around forty people across France were mobilized that evening. This is the case of Françoise, 74 years old. For her, it’s natural: “It seems absolutely essential to me. We are an association and we have to cover this period and therefore everyone must do it within the limits of their availability. It turns out that on the 31st I cannot, but on the 24th I can, so I’m doing 24.” Even if she has a stock of chocolate, there is no question of having a good meal at the same time: “I give time and I really give it. Otherwise I don’t do it.”

In any case his presence is important and his interlocutors point out to him: “They say thank you for being here, I didn’t think I’d find you!” In total, on the evening of December 24, Françoise was on the phone for approximately 4 hours.