At the women's home in Saint-Denis, ordinary heroism!

The powerful look of Ghada Hatem shows fatigue, the year has been tough at the Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis . All have caught the Covid. And it was feared that the general confinement would ruin five years of efforts to convince women victims of violence to push the door of this refuge. “At the first confinement, we said to ourselves that it would be impossible, says the director, women would no longer have excuses to leave their homes and come here on the sly. And on the side of the aggressors, the stress was not going to fix things. In addition to the Covid deaths, there was going to be an upsurge in feminicides and domestic violence, an epidemic of pregnancies outside the abortion deadlines… We thought we were heading for disaster.

 As always since the Maison des femmes opened on a vacant lot at the Delafontaine hospital (Seine-Saint-Denis) in 2016, the team coped. The house remained open, in real life and in video. Attendance dropped, but everyone stayed at their post. "No relaxation, we had to stay present", assures Yolaine Anicet, medico-administrative secretary. “The women called in secret, we multiplied the telephone appointments. “At the abortion service, the procedure has been simplified, “one visit instead of two,” says Rosalie Louis, nurse. Ghada Hatem, although exhausted by the Covid, came every day: “The house is her baby, she would do anything to save it”, assures Rosalie.