The annual Days of the Protestant Federation of mutual assistance an umbrella organization representing some 800 associations and institutions in the welfare and health care sectors were held in Toulouse (France) in recent weeks. The events included a meeting in which 170 representations of member associations and federations met together for three days to discuss the theme: “From immediate emotion… to enduring action”. A balance sheet was presented of the work performed by the Federation’s member associations in response to tragedies like the recent explosion of the AZF factory in the city or the floods of the rivers Gard and Somme. “A disaster it was pointed out is revelatory of the civil and social reality, of the political responsibilities assumed or avoided, and of the capacity to develop a project”. In this framework, “solidarity and immediate emergency relief, transformed by faith, must be at the basis of our movement”. As for the public interventions in the social field, the Federation expressed the hope that there would “a full re-establishment of immediate access to ‘universal cover for illness’ (CMU) and new public health policies aimed at prevention”, as well as “an active participation of associations in the debate with local administrators on decentralization”.
