Elodie Gossuin went to Cambodia for a humanitarian mission with UNICEF. The 44 -year -old host was turned upside down by this trip, which she told the “Journal des Femmes”.
Elodie Gossuin recently went to Cambodia as part of a humanitarian mission with UNICEF, of which she is the ambassador and who works, among other things, to respect for the rights of the child and their schooling. The 44 -year -old host came out both upset and determined. She tells us about this particularly striking trip …
How do you feel after this mission in Cambodia?
I don’t really know (laughs). Everything was so intense and I have not yet had time to ask myself to have time to let emotions live. I am still a little in the whirlpool of the post-directorate. My children, too, were missing so much and I think it was reciprocal. So when we come back, we don’t have time to breathe alone.
How was your mission?
We have the feeling of having made a marathon over a week, we moved a lot. We no longer think of sleeping, eating, washing … I did not know Southeast Asia at all and I didn’t want to anticipate too much. Once there, the figures seem far away because we are in reality. We always make the parallel with his life, the life that our children have and we realize the scope of Unicef, which is present in more than 190 countries in the world and which has a human and material strength unique in the world. There are children who did not have access to school yesterday, and thanks to UNICEF, it changed: today, they want to become doctors, pilots, teachers … They have the determination to offer themselves a future.
What are you particularly marked?
There was a meeting with a baby with whom we had a reciprocal crush! I took care of it, I gave him the bottle, he fell asleep on me … The life of his mom has changed a lot because Unicef has set up the Family Pass, a package to help the poorest communities. Five dollars per month per child are allocated to families, provided that the child goes to school and provided that the mother went to her three prenatal exams. Everything that is put in place is mind -blowing! The Unicef Cambodia teams also do titanic work on the schooling of boys: they are mobilized to take care of harvests and it is they who no longer have time to go to school, as opposed to other countries where girls are less educated. But progress is enormous thanks to the mobilization of each!
We talk a lot about negative things or the shortcomings and we don’t talk enough about positive things and what is advancing …
Totally! Seeing what is done is really great! Today, 94 % of children of school age are educated. Thanks to UNICEF, 700 villages recently had access to drinking water. There has been no deaths linked to malaria in Cambodia since 2018. And there is a 64 % drop in death due to HIV. In Cambodia, 76 % of children are vaccinated, 90 % of girls received their dose of the HPV vaccine. It’s really nice, it’s a human chain that is advancing with concrete actions! With UNICEF, we have for example finalized the solarization of many schools which have major electricity problems. This may seem secondary alongside access to education, but it allows in particular to set up the ventilation that helps students support the hot weather in class. The water is now clean and villagers can even go to schools to have access to water, while everyone has experienced deaths around you because of unsanitary water.
Is it an even more intense experience to live as a mother?
Yes, that’s for sure! When I am there, I project myself, I think of my children. Meet children who are age of mine, young girls who are already mothers after being married by force, who no longer have access to school … Inevitably, we put it into perspective. Our children have the right to have small concerns, but it is certain that when the problem is just that we no longer have wi-fi or that we forgot the Big Mac in the McDrive, it makes it smile and it puts things in perspective.
What do your children think of your investment with UNICEF? Are they proud of you?
It’s too cute, I always try to make them live the missions a bit. It has been a few years since the grown -ups want to come with me. I try to make facetime or zooms, to show them the places where I am. I think it has changed my children too. My daughters, for example, are really aware of being free and being lucky to go to school, to choose their sexuality, their future, their job … When the HPV is released in France, it was my children who asked me to be vaccinated. They are therefore aware of this. There, they have just received a dose of the new meningitis vaccine. As a woman who gave birth twice, I was lucky to have access to clinics and competent staff. And that, my children know it too.
Was it complicated to leave this place after such an intense stay?
Everything is difficult because when I arrived at the airport, I was just crying! Each mission is the same thing: it’s very hard to go there. Because I worry for mine, I tell myself that if there is the slightest concern, I am far away, and in addition, I have the phobia of the plane! I know that my children are proud because they know that I will see other children to help them, but every moment there, I want to have them near me. But it’s just as hard to come back because we know that we have met people that we may never see again.
