I agreed to be part of the board of directors because I am particularly moved by the situation of women in difficulty. I am from Bolivia, and as a child there I saw women in trouble who had no place to go to, no light to guide them, no respite or safe haven. So, to me this Auberge is a light at the end of the tunnel, providing timely assistance.

The Auberge is not simply a place of work, an experience or a stop along the way, but a gift, a cause, a place where to become involved is simply a natural response to your environment. Working with women who have suffered and are surviving, everyday bears witness to their strength, their personal power, work that confronts and enriches. Working to answer a need. Building a new reality.

Because of this I stay knowing that it’s the possibility to discover these women that come to the Auberge for a day, a week, several weeks, to discover them – all the facets of their personality, not just their difficulties but also their strengths, their talents, beauty, originality, dignity…

Who are these women? That’s the big question… they’re almost impossible to recognise when you walk past them in the streets. They seem to melt in every day’s background like if they were truly invisible, they can be anybody. Finally, one bright morning you knock on a door and it’s the right one.

We find ourselves, one day, without really wanting or seeking it Out of our own lodging because of a grubby landlord… Already weakened, mentally, by the loss of a job, Without the strength to fight him to recover our belongings. Left with a single bag and a few papers as all our baggage! There we are, homeless, in spite of ourselves! Disconnected from reality, totally and completely.

One hundred pounds of pain on two blistered feet. Skinned alive, having reached the last frame of the black and white film of my life, I make myself knock on the door. Behind it, women, whom, I feel it, have been awaiting me a long time, their arms proffered to shelter me, hug me, console me. The door was that of the Auberge Madeleine, many years ago… That day when I chose to live again, is the day when I chose me.