“What is missing is the kisses. ” Children placed in foster homes in Thionville are also confined since March 17. And time seems long. They are sixty, aged 3 to 18, spread over two sites, deprived of their school, of their loved ones. Mediated visits with parents or return home on weekends, authorized by court decision, are suspended.
The coronavirus has frozen everything. The contact with the family is made by telephone, by video. The children are one-on-one with the educators. “We found ourselves overnight in a configuration we did not know. In the only reception center “Oceania”, in the Côte des roses, we had 50% fewer staff in the first days, “said the director of the device, Imade Boukhari.
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“The hardest part is not being able to cuddle”
A hitherto unthinkable scenario which was played out in a beautiful solidarity. “All trades are involved: laundry, cook, maintenance staff …” Educators students or employed by other structures have landed as reinforcements. The academic inspectorate also responded to the call for pedagogical continuity. “Seven volunteer organizations came to the front with us. “
However, at the start of confinement, promiscuity with children, known to be healthy carriers of the virus, could cause concern. But no case has been detected. “Now we’re not afraid to pass it on to them when they come to work,” says Sylvie. The educator improvises as a teacher, facilitator like her colleagues. Neither her patience nor her smile seem to have left her. “The hardest part is not being able to cuddle the little ones who want them,” says Suzan.
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Sharing and courage
These children in care have emotional and educational deficiencies. “They are victims of faulty family systems. They have experienced ruptures, ”explains the director, Imade Boukhari. The remoteness reinforced by confinement causes inevitable moments of suffering. “But the kids reacted pretty well,” he congratulates.
The educators have reinvented the functioning of the house, juggled the school levels, multiplied the times of sharing. The young interns publish a daily gazette sent to parents, they participated in the Olympiads, organized inter-establishment video challenges. They even get into gardening. “The teenagers prepared cakes for the nursing staff at Bel-Air hospital,” said a supervisor.
A group of girls, middle school and high school students met at the refectory, participated in these activities. They yearn for outings, for their friends. Social media allows them to keep an eye on the outside. “It makes me crazy to stay locked up,” said one. Especially since the Prime Minister’s announcements do not let them see any immediate prospects.
Thionville’s social children’s homes raise the delicate question of deconfinement. “It looks more complicated than confining,” admits the director.
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Towards a very complex deconfinement
The deconfinement of social children’s homes (MECS) promises to be complex, in the Côte des Roses (“Oceania”) as in the Lowlands (“Les Prés de Brouck”). Many parameters come into play: the gradual return to school, the desire of some parents not to put their children back in class, the schools that will not be able to open. Parents’ visits will also not resume normally within the establishments.
The director of the Thionville Diversified Support System (DADT), which manages children’s homes in particular, Imade Boukhari, questions the continued reinforcement of its staff: “We will always need them after May 11 because there will be still a lot of children present continuously, ”he explains.
Several avenues are being considered. Again, the teams are trying to prepare. In six weeks, the barrier gestures were certainly repeated (and even assimilated for some). But how much?
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