Above: Charlotte Petitat during her reading at the Bistro d’échange, held at the ATD Fourth World National Centre Switzerland in Treyvaux on 5 September 2024. © Nida-Errahmen Ajmi/ATD Fourth World.

The setting

A simple backdrop, four chairs, and a few scarves were enough for actress Charlotte Petitat to immerse her audience in the struggles of life for a Swiss family facing social and institutional maltreatment.

With a blend of tenderness and strength, the performer delivered a dramatic reading that captivated and touched her audiences in the Swiss towns of Treyvaux, Geneva, Bulle, and La Chaux-de-Fonds. She opened their eyes to what it means to ‘live in extreme poverty’ in a Swiss Francophone canton from the 1960s to the present day.

An account of three generations

The narrative begins with a boy forcefully placed into care under the guise of offering support, irreversibly changing his life. As he grows up, the story showcases his children’s and grandchildren’s lives. He marries and starts a family, who then find themselves trapped in their own endless spiral of struggle. Across generations, the stigma of poverty clings to the characters, and institutional hurdles build up like towering walls jailing the protagonists. First the daughter, then the granddaughters are placed into care. Feelings of depression and hopelessness permeate their lives, and their state of extreme poverty persists. Throughout the story, the family members demonstrate their resistance—a step-father’s big heart, the fighting spirit of the women, and the solidarity within the family. They hold each other up, but it’s not enough. The birth of a third grandchild puts the family under economic strain. The mother fights back, uniting with other families living in difficult circumstances, finds support in several organisations, and gains the trust of a few institutions so that the child is not placed into care at birth. In 2013, the Swiss government apologised for these coercive methods.

Breaking the vicious cycle of placements

The story, written by ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps member Joana Jaquemet, is based on over three years of interviews with the family. It is both unique and typical of what parents in situations of extreme poverty experience today. The story is in collaboration with the Family Advocacy Project—a research project led by parents in Switzerland and six other European countries to create proposals that aim to break the endless cycle of child placements across generations. Notably, these parents pinpointed pivotal moments in their lives in which their family’s future was at stake. Then, they analysed them and created tangible proposals for change including: a fairer adversarial hearing in which the judge allows the parents to speak first, the right to be accompanied by a trusted individual when dealing with the child-protection agency or its representatives, and the importance of creating support groups with parents who share the same experiences so that they can help one another through their difficulties,

Acquiring knowledge and sharing experiences

These parents also agreed to participate in workshops at the ATD Fourth World National Centre in Treyvaux. During this time, they aimed to develop their ability to make their voices heard, speak on behalf of a collective, and share their experiences with other participants. Some of these parents were also present during Charlotte Petitat’s readings. Based on the knowledge they acquired, mothers and fathers could speak clearly and relevantly during the debates that followed and share national and international proposals for change they had identified in their research. This includes transforming childhood protection services into services for family support, which would help parents feel supported rather than supervised.

Véronique Martrou, ATD Fourth World Switzerland ally

More on ATD Fourth World Switzerland on their website (in French)