As part of the International Day Against Violence Against Women, France 2 broadcasts a film directed by Eric Guéret in the program “Infrarouge”.
“We still face this massive problem of women victims of violence who do not have enough space in our country, throughout the region.” The observation is drawn up by Nathalie, director of Flora Tristan, first accommodation center dedicated to victims of domestic violence created in France. His testimony, collected like others in the documentary Ssurvivorsdirected by Eric Guéret and broadcast Wednesday 29 November at 10:50 p.m. on France 2, reveals the difficulty of caring for these people.
Survivors immerses himself in this accommodation center founded in 1978, dedicated to the protection and support of men and women forced to flee their homes and the violence of their spouses. A place that responds to the urgency of requests for updates shelters victims accompanied or not by children and provides them with 27 apartments for a period which can range from eighteen months to two years.
The documentary meets victims and social workers who support them psychologically and guide them in their legal procedures. Professionals who are also responsible for caring for the children of these women, and who also train police officers so that they know how to recognize victims and treat them accordingly. But what comes up again and again in the film is the notorious lack of resources from which these associations suffer.
Increasing violence
The documentary also denounces the way in which domestic violence has long been considered ordinary violence, maintained by a form of denial and resignation on the part of the victims. As well as a certain lightness in the treatment of the authorities. Their consequences are however disastrous and above all, their number increases considerably from year to year: in 2022, 244,000 people suffered domestic violence, according to the Ministry of the Interior, or 15% more than the previous year.
Although victims can benefit from real support in this type of center, it is only temporary and the “afterward” often remains problematic, even precarious. Women who have reached the end of the two-year accommodation period must manage and find another solution. They are then often left to their own devices, forced to stay in social hotels or to turn to social emergency services.
Places that are rarely suitable and above all unsafe. “It’s not the heart of my work”, sadly confides Amélie, a social worker, after speaking one last time with a woman who has to leave the center with her daughter, and who does not know where to go. “It would be precisely to be able to support them until the end if there were the means.”
The disastrous consequences of domestic violence
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This lack of accommodation also resembles a form of violence against these vulnerable mothers, who often find themselves wandering. To escape the street, some are even forced to return home and suffer violence from their partner again.
Repercussions on children
Brutality whose repercussions on their children are catastrophic: difficulties at school, trauma, desocialization, placements… These young collateral victims are rarely supported psychologically. “When you are constantly thinking that your mother is perhaps going to be killed by your father, you cannot be in the learning process. (…) And then you put yourself in the position of the aggressor, studies prove it. If we do nothing (…) what will happen during adolescence?” asks Alexandra, who works in the Flora Tristan center.
“There is a huge cost for society. If politicians came to immerse themselves and see the consequences this has on people and said to themselves: ‘We’ll give ourselves a few years, we’ll put money into this. ‘”
Alexandra, social worker
in the documentary “Survivors”
Because the question of housing is good “the sinews of the war of the scourge” domestic violence, as Nathalie, the director of the center, explains in the film. “There needs to be funding for this. I hope that one day a government will listen to the demands.” A beginning of awareness? On November 20, Aurore Bergé, the minister of Solidarity and Families, announced that generalized emergency aid would be granted to victims of domestic violence.
The documentary Survivors, directed by Eric Guéret, is broadcast Wednesday November 29 at 10:50 p.m. on France 2 and on the France.tv platform.
