They live 500 km away and have never heard of each other. Nothing therefore predisposed Mélissa, a student at the Lyon School of Management, to give English lessons to Feinda, a sixth-grader from Bagnolet. But for the past two weeks, the teenager and the young woman have been meeting twice a week, via computers, to review Feinda's English lessons.
Behind this unexpected meeting hides the Bahuts Solidaires site, launched by Angéline Desbordes-Silly, a resident of Bagnolet in order to reduce the impact of the health crisis on the education of students in Seine-Saint-Denis. Executive in a training organization, in regular contact with young people in grandes écoles, she had the idea of soliciting her network of students to ask them to provide free tutoring for adolescents in Seine-Saint-Denis .
“Currently, around sixty students from EM Lyon or Edhec Lille (two business schools) have signed up for the scheme, which already benefits some twenty college or high school students. The students of the department got to know about the project, because I talked about it around me and in certain neighborhood branches, ”says Angéline Desbordes-Silly. “In Seine-Saint-Denis, even more than elsewhere, parents must continue to work to feed their families or cannot necessarily help their children because they do not speak good French. There is a real need for tutoring, ”she says.
"I have three siblings, so my parents can't be everywhere! "
Feinda, enrolled at the Sólveig-Anspach intercommunal college in Montreuil, takes advantage of Mélissa's advice to revise her English lessons. "I have three siblings, so my parents can't be everywhere! With Mélissa, I was able to review the basics of conjugation, ”appreciates the teenager, who chats with the 21-year-old student via the Zoom platform. “It gives him access to what I write on my computer. Like that, you can work both orally and in writing, ”details Mélissa, who immediately volunteered for this initiative.
“With confinement, I have more time than before, even if I continue to take my online courses and that I will soon be taking exams. I can give a helping hand to students in need. I myself received tutoring in the past. I know how much it can help to have a person just for yourself ”, smiles the young woman from Val-de-Marne, who has already given four lessons to the schoolgirl.
Since its launch, Bahuts Solidaires has even provided some computers to young people who did not have them, so that they can discuss their face-to-face with their teacher. "Support can also be done by phone if there are no other means," says Angéline Desbordes-Silly, who reminds us that many courses can still be organized. To benefit, go to www.bahutssolidaires.fr
