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France: The initiative “La Vape du Coeur” helps indigent smokers wean themselves off tobacco

Born as a self-help project and Facebook discussions, the initiative " La Vape du coeur " (Vape of the Heart) evolved into a charity organization to structure, give credibility and provide the guarantees of transparency.

Nathalie Dunand

April 29, 2016

From a Facebook page… to a charity Organization

Initially, the initiative “La Vape du Coeur” was a simple self-help movement on Facebook, vapers offering used material to the poorest. Voluntary donations from individuals and professionals lead project initiators think bigger and organize by depositing the statutes of the organization in July 2015.

Smoking accounts for nearly half of the difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest populations, due to higher consumption by the latter*.

To make tobacco smoking risk reduction accessible to the most impoverished people

“Vaping good quality is hard to access for the underprivileged” says Julien Le Vaillant, vice-president of the organization whose commitment is to make vaping more accessible to the socially underprivileged people. This population, according to a British study, shows “rates of smoking cessation twice as low as in higher socio-economic classes despite comparable attempts numbers”.

In front of numerous controversies touching vaporizers, some organization have been chilled and decided not to take further action. However, the actions carried out by the local antenna of Lyon “Notre-Dame des sans-abris“, association “Prose” or a branch of “Les Petits Frères des Pauvres” in Paris demonstrated all the potential of such initiatives, where the supply of vapor goods could take place on a monthly basis.

“The difference has come from the discourse of health professionals, principally GPs and tobacco specialists” confesses Julien Le Vaillant.

Four robust partnerships have been established to date, including one with clinic La Recouvrance, near Montauban, and another one with a CSAPA antenna (Care Centre, support and prevention of addiction) in Marseille. They helped to provide equipment to nearly 200 smokers who are now surveyed.

Vape du Coeur has already supplied more than 500 smokers

To date, approximately 300 underprivileged smokers have benefited from vapers’ generosity and received e-cigarettes through this association, an additional 200 indirectly via partnerships. According to the first feedbacks, at least 75% of beneficiaries have reduced their consumption of tobacco and 50% have stopped smoking.