2023-04-25 18:02:58
There are a thousand stories in the life of Fouad Ben Ahmed. That of a former dunce who repeated three times but who, at the start of the next school year, will teach business creation in personal services at the Catholic University of Angers. That of a child from Seine-Saint-Denis who, growing up in the Cité de l’Abreuvoir in Bobigny before becoming a facilitator and then head of department, knows his territory like no one else. So much so that in 2015, an American journalist made him the central character of a ten-page investigation that will refer to the French suburbs.
Stuck at home, lack of elevator
And then there is also the spectacular act of bravery of this father who, while taking his children to see Superman at the cinema in 2013, comes across an armed man determined to do battle with his wife and her lover, gives him a hold of jujitsu and immobilizes him until the arrival of the police. Not to mention the trajectory of the grassroots socialist militant, a fine connoisseur of local politics, who became economic affairs assistant to the communist mayor of Bobigny.
And yet, it is yet another facet of Fouad Ben Ahmed’s life that needs to be told this time. This story, which earned him a nomination for a Polish prize for innovation, began in July 2016, in Bobigny. That evening, the multi-card activist, who leads the “CAC 93”, a “club of citizen actors” working to solve everyday problems, invited the inhabitants of the district to an associative paella. But Martine, 66, does not come.
For almost two months, this woman in a wheelchair has been blocked in her apartment by an elevator breakdown which will not be resolved for another eight weeks. “We are able to send someone into space but we are unable to guarantee that people can leave their homes! », indignant Fouad. Who then deploys his energy to challenge the lessor, mobilize support, and publicize the situation, which will, suddenly, be resolved in eight days.
Idealist more than ideologue
On the Facebook account he created for the occasion, very quickly, a multitude of similar testimonies flowed. A mother who has to carry her disabled son, elderly people who cannot do their shopping, invalids who are prevented from going to a medical appointment… “When you live in an apartment, you can very quickly find yourself a prisoner at home if you are old, disabled or sick”summarizes Fouad Ben Ahmed, who then founded the collective Plus Sans Ascenseur to act more effectively with donors.
But Fouad is not an ideologue. More of an idealist. “I don’t have a radical vision of things, I am by nature optimistic and looking for a solution”, explains the one who, in 2018, approached a manufacturer to design a chair on swivel wheels. Handled by a volunteer, it can go up and down any staircase effortlessly. From 2019, an experiment is being carried out in the town of Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) to take care of shipwrecked mobility victims. Successful experience.
Vertical mobility and carrying groceries
To grow, and to respond to public contracts, Fouad ben Ahmed then transformed voluntary activity into a business. Since February 2021, SAMV (Vertical Mobility Assistance Solution) has been offering vertical mobility services, and, while waiting to make this new activity profitable, shopping delivery.
Thanks to ten wheelchairs and six vehicles, nearly 29 people, mainly employees in integration, have been recruited. 170 people were transported, and more than 7,500 trips, paid for by lessors and lift operators, were carried out in Île-de-France but also in Marseille, Bordeaux, Rouen and Angers. And “we have prospects in Caen, Rouen, Toulouse, Reims, Lille, Le Havre or Nice”rejoices Fouad Ben Ahmed, who seems unstoppable.
“By helping people move around, we can really help the elderly or disabled to live better while staying at home”, he insists. For that, “We need to develop the profession of vertical mobility assistant and deploy it throughout the territory. » Fouad Ben Ahmed is also working with Senator Thierry Meignen (Les Républicains) on a bill aimed at having vertical mobility assistance included in the contracts of all lift operators.
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His compass. A better world
Maybe he has savior syndrome? “It’s a beautiful disease! »jokes in any case Fouad Ben Ahmed, who constantly wonders “ how to make someone’s life better. The film A better world is particularly dear to him. Released in 2001, it tells how a 12-year-old boy, answering a school assignment asking him to find solutions to improve the world, suggests helping three people who, in turn, will have to help three others. To make things better, “You have to forget yourself and stay determined, but you also have to propose solutions”believes Fouad Ben Ahmed, citing the examples of Coluche and Abbé Pierre, whom he admires. “The great victories in terms of social gains have been the fruit of individual relentlessness in the service of a cause”.
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