A ratio revised upwards (a welcoming for five young people) for those who will discover the Light City. The approximately 200 Brussels children and 150 young people from Liège and Flémalle will indeed find 80,000 others on the Champ-de-Mars, the garden which extends in the shade of the Eiffel Tower.
The number of participants echoes the 80 candles of Secours Populaire Français, heir to the two world wars and then appointed in this way in 1945, after the occupation. As early as December 1944, his volunteers had sent 400 children of resistance fighters on vacation to Mont-Dore.
The program for this international edition stamped “of OUF” includes a visit to the Palace of Versailles, a cruise on the Seine and a giant picnic at the foot of the Iron Lady.
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If Paris returns regularly in the destinations chosen, the Belgian non -profit organization generally opts for local escapades, as in the caves of Han, Brussels, Viroinval or even on the center canals. The Secours Populaire Wallonie-Brussels, created in 2000, depends indeed on donations, while participation in costs for these holidays for a day is minimal (less than 10 euros). “We do not receive the slightest penny of public subsidy,” recalls its president Robert Tangre. “At first, the children were transported by army buses”, which released from the budget to “do other things”. The date of this special day was therefore not chosen at random. “We always leave at the end of August because tourist attendance decreases and we obtain more advantageous prices,” agrees Mr. Tangre.
Reflecting the precariousness of children who will taste, on Wednesday, at the joys of these short holidays, there are few those who return over the years. “These are young people who live in households for women beaten or placed by justice for example,” illustrates the president of Secours Populaire. The latter contacts CPAS and ASBL Partners for the registration of children. But soon, “holidays, I forget everything”: at the sea or in Paris, the entertainment will transport these young people on a difficult daily in another universe.
