For Sandra*, 15, hope has a name: Achille. That of a horse, who became her best friend, who finally allowed her to feel normal. After 11 years in the services of the DPJ, after the beatings and insults in his family, the suicidal and self-mutilation crises, the tide has turned. Journey of a tenacious teenager.
“Sometimes it may seem crazy, but it can save lives,” says Sandra, met in a Montreal group home of the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ), one evening in November.
“That” is the help she received from the DPJ Youth Foundation last year, thanks to which she benefited from pet therapy sessions. It was there, in an equestrian center on the outskirts of Montreal, that things changed for Sandra.
Her story with the DPJ began when she was 4 years old, when a worker came to see her in her primary school. “I was happy,” she remembers, “because at that age, I didn’t know that we could get help. »
In his family, violence is omnipresent.
My father hit me, insulted me, punished me, but harsh punishments. I was deprived of food, I had to spend the whole evening in my room.
Sandra
There followed years where she moved from her mother’s house to her father’s house, living with guilt, agitation and incoherent speeches between her two parents.
At 9 years old, Sandra breaks down: she wants to die. She was hospitalized for two months in a psychiatric establishment in the mainland. She realizes that being away from her family is good for her. At 13, she began the process of joining a DPJ group home.
The same place where we meet her, two years later. In a very different state from the one she was in when she entered it.
Tumultuous arrival
Something snaps inside Sandra when she arrives at the group home. She has seizures, tics, tears out a kitchen drawer, self-harms. “I let go,” she says in hindsight. “All the frustration, hatred and injustice that I had experienced since I was 4 years old, they took it all in their face. »
She is not a violent person, Sandra wants to point out. At least, not towards others.
I really attacked the objects and myself. I was impulsive, because I grew up in an impulsive world.
Sandra
Nothing is right. Neither at school, nor in relationships with other young people in the home, nor with his parents. But in Sandra’s discussions with her follow-up educator, one subject comes up: horses.
They are everywhere. She draws them (with talent), she talks about them, she has always dreamed of them. “When I was born, I said horse. I am sure ! », says the teenager jokingly.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Sandra, 15, loves horses. And she draws them with talent.
The pet therapy sessions are too expensive for her parents, or for the services she is entitled to receive from the DPJ. This is where the DPJ Youth Foundation comes into play.
Thousands of young people supported
Each year, this foundation supports thousands of young people in Quebec by offering services complementary to those provided by the State, explains Marie-Hélène Vendetta, senior director of philanthropic development and communications.
The aid can be used to support certain talents, with lessons or sporting activities, for example. Or to pay for therapies or to support young people in the transition to adult life (up to the age of 25), in particular.
These are young people who have multiple traumas. So you really need very personalized recipes for everyone.
Marie-Hélène Vendetta, senior director of philanthropic development and communications of the DPJ Youth Foundation
In Sandra’s case, the Foundation agreed to pay her not one, but two pet therapy sessions, for a total value of $2,000. “It’s the best thing that could have happened to me,” Sandra sums up.
As part of the Foundation’s annual fundraising campaign, the teenager wanted to tell her story – a big challenge for her. To give back a little of what she received.
Achille
From the moment pet therapy begins, every Wednesday before school, Sandra begins her day with Achilles. A “beautiful, big… and stupid” horse, she describes with a laugh.
“Achille was my friend, my true friend,” insists Sandra. An animal with whom I felt good. It was a feeling I hadn’t had in a long time. »
In his company, she feels “normal”, adds the teenager. Not to mention the joy of getting out of Montreal, of finding yourself in nature with “the farms, the cows, the fields, the tractors,” she lists.
During her second pet therapy session last spring, the teenager’s transformation began to shine through. And bear fruit.
Sandra wrote a letter to the other young people in the group home saying she was committed to becoming nicer. She respects her commitment, to the point of becoming a model for others. She begins to set her limits with her father. To express yourself. The tics disappear. Self-harm too.
This series of small successes makes her “proud”. “I regained hope that things could get better,” says Sandra. And, at that moment, my goal was to return home. »
Sandra worked hard to return to live with her mother.
She left the group home this fall, leaving behind some green plants, a mural, and several horse paintings.
* Fictitious first name