Teamwork, an expression that is sometimes a little outdated or on the verge of becoming one. Teamwork, an overused expression used to meet a challenge, to win a race, to lead a fight.

Teamwork, when the fashionable rule is to do everything possible to achieve social distancing, is beginning to become a challenge. Does it even still make sense to team up while being confined? Is it still possible to team up when the world around us invites us to be confined, when there has to be a « let go » even for basic necessities? So on the 50th day of confinement, I feel like saying « challenge taken up and achieved », I feel like saying that it is possible, that it makes sense and above all that it is worth it.

Yes, there are small teams that hold their own in different trades. And there is one that has managed to set up other forms of ties to hold out over time. Containment was set up a little quickly. Each one of us took what we could on board to be able to work from home. For the first few days, we had to test, install the software and support each other as best we could. Well, it’s okay, everything is not yet perfectly worked out, but technically we managed to do everything.

In our team, there is one (it’s Bea) who is on sick leave. Nothing to do with the Covid, but we’re keeping the connection. Another one (Hélène) has created a group on Whatsapp for our little daily breaks (a bit like coffee breaks), what a great idea!

Then, there is a third one (Amal) who started making Youtube videos to share her best recipes with us. Finally, I’m here trying to share with you the story of our little team that kept rowing against all odds.

This is how, without seeing each other (except in visio from time to time), we have managed to maintain the links that make us want to advance together at the professional level. We have respected physical distance because it is essential, even if we have not adhered to the idea of social distance. It has to be said that this concept is rather difficult to conceive for girls who spend their time trying to reduce or avoid social distancing.

That’s what we do for a living. For us, social distancing is rather the thing to fight against, it is synonymous with exclusion (what we fight every day), it is synonymous with injustice (what we try to avoid with the small means we have), it is also close to marginalization (what we give our best to avoid).

That’s why I can say that we have continued to work as a team while maintaining physical distance throughout the 50 days of confinement. We stayed the course on the work side and maintained the bonds that kept us on course. We persisted in putting a little spice into our daily lives to share it with those who needed it.

Because, it must be said, in social work, without a team, it is impossible to stay the course, it is impossible to digest alone the tons of human and social injustices we have to face, it is impossible to give breath to those who are short of it. Without a team, how can we find meaning in dealing with the most painful situations day after day? Without a team, it is impossible to help those who fall for a thousand and one reasons to get back on their feet.

So, colleagues, I just want to say thank you! Thank you for your messages, your jokes, your jokes, your recipes… Thank you Amal for launching a Youtube channel, thank you Hélène for the Whatsapp group and for your photos that brighten up the days, thank you Béa for your morning sms illuminated by your books and your flower petals.

We have passed the 50-day mark and we have neither stalled nor disarmed, and we can say that together we will continue to abuse social distancing while respecting physical distancing. Yes, we have maintained the social link with those who are deprived of it throughout the year because of illness, fragility, lack of money, loss of bearings, with those who had already dropped out long before confinement.

We have managed to gain height when we had to, to chase away the clouds, to remind each other that despite all the injustices, outside there is a world that is worth fighting for because it is truly beautiful. So we continued to fight so that everyone could enjoy it.

Just like the weavers on their looms, we untangled the threads when the stories were tangled.

We helped to hold the handrail to get up the sometimes steep stairs of everyday life.

Some were humbly allowed to see the end of the tunnel.

We even tried to re-light the stars for those who were in the dark night.

Like the fishermen at the fishing harbours, we tried, as best we could, to re-mesh the nets when the blows of fate had pierced multiple holes in our morale.

So, yes, today I can say that, just like those hands that support the walls assailed by the flood of big ships in Venice, we haven’t let go of anything and we’ll hold on thanks to our damn team spirit!

Par Nathalie

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)