Refugee volunteers: the collective role of the festival

PostED ON OCTOBER 15 AT 4:18 PM

Eritrea, Sudan, Iraq, Mongolia, Ivory Coast… Café Lumière looked like a UN summit this Thursday morning. For eight years, the Lumière festival has invited refugees in partnership with the Regional Prefecture within the framework of the Integration Fortnight.

Among the 49 refugees who donned the uniform of the Lumière festival volunteer this year, Kenifé Touré, who came from the Ivory Coast exactly one year ago, commented, “When you arrive in a country, I think it all starts with culture. It’s the best method of discovery”.

56 job interviews conducted last year

This is also a first for Azmera from Eritrea, who participated in welcoming the public to the Villa Lumière: "It is an opportunity to meet people and improve my level of French. I also learned how a film is made by taking the guided tour of the Lumière Museum!"

Carried out in partnership with several associations and the company EDF, this action responds to a clear objective: to provide access to employment for refugees. "We aim to develop this initiative in more areas of the region", indicated Catherine Vinay, manager of missions in the prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. "Fifty-six interviews were conducted last year during the job dating event organised for the programme", said Sébastien Guiragossian, HR Director of the Adéquat group, which has been a partner of the Integration Fortnight for the last three years.

Initially begun with refugees, this operation of festival volunteers has been extended to include former detainees, young people in hosted homes or persons receiving work welfare.

The action of solidarity could someday even be applied to the Cannes Film Festival, mentioned Thierry Frémaux, Director of the Lumière festival.

Laura Lépine