This statement can be found on the website of the Stroossengelen, "street angels" in Luxembourgish. One of the missions of the charity is delivering food to people in need. They have nearly 300 names on their roster. Behind each of them lies an individual, complicated life story, but they can often be summarised in the same terms: a pension unfit for today's cost of living, long term unemployment, struggling on the guaranteed minimum income (RMG), life on the street. It only takes a few wrong turns to lose everything, says Luc Lauer, who regularly helps out with the Street Angels and has taken Monique Kater on his round in Luxembourg City.
"We have 105 families. When we launched the programme 14 months ago, we had 14. There are 287 people total, I think, who are being supplied by the Street Angels", Luc Lauer explains.
This is pretty much a full time job which you're doing on the side and without payment: you need dedication. Luc Lauer frowns when he hears these words. For him, it is about the individual: people who, he says, don't eagerly await the Street Angel van just for fun. They simply do not have enough to live on.
"We share moments with people who belong to our family, who are in need and not doing well", he says. They get help from the food bank and the Lions Club. They are part of the Foodbox programme and get a bread delivery.
Elise, a 70 year old widow, had an accident when she was 39 which resulted in work incapacity.
"I used to work at the orphanage in Itzig. On my last day I rode there on the bus and had an accident. Now I only get RMG, what am I supposed to do? I've paid everything, TV subscription, a 298 Euro bill from the Council, 319 Euro rent, it all amounted to 911 euros. I get 1,499 euros RMG, what's left after that? But this man right here, he always helps me."
The man in question is called Tun, and he lives in the same building. He doesn't show his 81 years, though he didn't have an easy life. His father was drafted and came back a stranger, Tun recalls.
"We grew up in poverty, my mother had 7 children. The family took us on, and in the end we landed with the Council - since there was no man in the house. When I was seven, the Council put us out on the street, with all the kids! I've had problems all my life. I was sitting in a cardboard box when we met. Here, we share what we have. And if there is nothing left, we give it to the dog, so he will have something, too."
Carine, the youngest client we meet on our round, doesn't mince words. "If things continue like this in our country, I see this with friends, it will only further go downhill. Some of them won't find their way out of their situation."
Carine is one of 30 people Lux Lauer visits in Luxembourg City alone. This is the darker side of rich and glitzy Luxembourg.
