Hervé COATANER, aged 50, has been with Group BNP Paribas Personal Finance (originally Cetelem) since 1987. He currently works in the recently established Operations Department of BNP Paribas Personal Finance Central Functions, and more specifically, in the Sales Effectiveness Department. And for some time now, he has worked with a charitable association as a volunteer. Hervé was happy to answer our questions.

Tell us about your project and association.

Within a society largely characterized by the distress, insecurity, dependence and exclusion of a growing number of its members, the Association Relais Etoiles de Vie (A.REV or Relay Stars of Life Association) addresses the urgent need to work towards a more cooperative world, particularly through our focus on assisting the sick and the disabled who live in Versailles and the surrounding towns. The association is also active in other towns in the Paris region. We hope to create similar branches, whether directly linked to us or operating independently, to work in other regions of France, which will operate according to the Charter and the principles that have governed the creation and the actions of the Association Relais Etoiles de Vie since its inception.

Its purpose is to help those who are ill and/or physically disabled and living at home to come to terms with their disabilities and to fight against exclusion by providing them with a full range of services for their bodies, their spirits and their hearts.

The people whom we serve provide the motivation for the work of the association’s members, who aim to forge genuine relationships with the association’s beneficiaries and to meet with them as equals, to respect their disabilities both in word and in deed, to enable them to live and to talk freely about themselves knowing that everything they say and do will be kept confidential, to ease their sense of exclusion and if possible to provide support to their families.

The association is a not-for-profit organisation founded by health workers and doctors from Versailles and the surrounding areas in accordance with the French Law of 1901, and was registered in the Yvelines Prefecture on 6 October 2003.

What was your personal motivation for joining the association?

I learned about this association after a very good friend of mine had a car accident that left him almost completely paralysed. After a long period of rehabilitation, he succeeded in getting a little bit of his life back, largely thanks to this association. That was in 2005. Since then, I have spent several weekends each year with these people, mainly in the spring and summer and during the holidays.

What inspired you to do this?

While my actions were initially centred around my friend, I ended up empathising with his fellow sufferers. They all have this amazing energy. Young or old, it’s always a real joy to help them. I’m proudest of earning the confidence of these men and women, for whom I’m responsible for a few hours. This confidence is something you never quite gain fully, and each time I have to work hard to win their trust again, conversation by conversation. It’s a narrow path to tread, as you must never make yourself indispensable but must simply be useful at the right time.

How do you see yourself developing this project in the future?

I’m not on the Board of this association, and I don’t want to be. All the volunteers – mainly women, all with the most extraordinary kindness and good will – are people who have enough time to carry out programs that involve day trips or other events. My contribution is very “utilitarian”. With a handful of others, we are the volunteers who are assigned to chauffeur this small community around during day trips, to push the wheelchairs and to offer our time and, above all, our validation. Our participation is mainly logistical, and rightly so. A greater level of commitment would demand much more energy, and a day has only 24 hours. I make myself available as much as possible.

What are your main needs these days? How can you raise public awareness?

Our needs are mainly financial. We received a donation of a specially equipped vehicle. Now we must maintain it and use it regularly. All this requires resources, and resources that are sustainable. There is nothing worse than having to cancel a day trip due to a lack of funds. We have private donors, but it is true that corporate partners are preferable because they have more substantial resources. Just like a company, we have customers and products, and we raise funds to implement our projects. The only difference is in scale – after all, we are volunteers!

More generally, it is the directors of the association, together with the volunteers and the beneficiaries, who make it possible for the association to grow and develop in a harmonious and enduring way, in a spirit of teamwork and camaraderie, allowing it to achieve the goals it has set and to which it consecrates its efforts, its energy and its devotion.