“My training as a steeplejack to start a new life”
Fort Saint-Nicolas, Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)
Pâquerette Demotes-Mainard:
Actavista is an association created in 2002 with the aim of using endangered historical heritage as a lever for training and qualifying people who are in a situation of economic and social precariousness in the territories.
Mahnaz Abbasi:
In Iran, my birth country, I was a sports engineer and a sports teacher. Here in France I didn't know what I could do, whether I wanted to get a different job or not.
I've been thinking about it for two years, I met steeplejacks, they talked to me about their work and I liked it. It is an outdoor job, done high up, manual. I wanted to work on old buildings.
Samira Louragh:
Mahnaz was sent to us through Pôle emploi. It was a real discovery for her, she had no professional project when she arrived and she was facing several problems, especially in terms of driving licence and linguistics because she did not express herself as she expresses herself today.
Actavista funded her steeplejack training. She’s been with us for ten months and it has really been a great success.
Instructor:
We're going to put the spirit level like this and check the bubble, we have to be right in the middle.
Mahnaz Abbasi:
We learned to build the walls, plaster, tiling, shuttering, insulation, it's my favorite… My grandfather’s house was built with materials that we currently use for insulation, earth and hemp. Maybe that's why I like it, it runs deep in our family.
Ooh it's good! We did it !
I have two projects. The first, I achieved, I am a steeplejack who works on old buildings. And the second is that I would like to resume my studies at university in maybe five to six years.
