Every year in Paris, from the beginning of November to the end of April, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening, the Ordre de Malte France’s volunteers – over 130 in 2010 organized in teams of four – have provided assistance to street people in cooperation with the Emergency Health Service (SAMU).
When it gets really cold these rounds intensify. The volunteers go directly to the homeless, some of whom are notified by 115. If necessary, they accompany them to the emergency reception centres. If they don’t want to go, they hand out sleeping bags, hot soup, cooked meals, coffee, cakes… and try to give them comfort and moral support.
“It’s good to know that people like you exist,” an elderly man told our teams last winter.
