Anaëlle only wants one thing: to study. Happy to have obtained her baccalaureate with very good honors in Digne-les-Bains (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) then to have been accepted for a degree in social sciences at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, and to have found accommodation adapted to his disability… Everything seemed perfect.
But at the beginning of October, when she received a call from the departmental council, it was a cold shower for Séverine, Anaëlle’s mother. We tell him the bad news: the care of the carer who assists his daughter on a daily basis will no longer be reimbursed at 100%… But at 10%, from the month of November. 10% of a sum of approximately 4,600 euros per month. “A house of cards that is collapsing” according to the mother, who thought she had reached the end of the administrative procedures for Anaëlle’s installation in the capital.
“Since she was a child, we have been fighting so that she can study and do as much as possible. There, it’s as if we were being told that it wasn’t possible” breathes Séverine. “I feel like I’m asking for the moon when I just want to study,” laments Anaëlle, whose goal is to become a journalist. Studies are a real need for me! »
From her university accommodation in the 5th arrondissement of Paris and to the “Tolbiac” university in the 13th, Anaëlle – suffering from spinal muscular atrophy – is accompanied by a care assistant who assists her throughout the daytime. On public transport, in the elevators of the university, in the amphitheater for taking notes, in the library where the social science books are at the end of a staircase, in the toilets, in the cafeteria where the screen of the coffee machine is well above her… Chloé, a psychology student on a gap year, allows her to follow her classes in a “calm” manner.
“I can’t imagine Anaëlle succeeding in her course without a care assistant. I constantly help her to eat, to drink, to take the elevator, to bring her her work table, with many trivial movements that we make in a day and which are impossible for her, alone” worries Chloé, who works alongside him 44 hours a week.
Contacted, the departmental council of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence specifies that responsibility lies with Anaëlle’s university: “When she follows her courses, she should benefit from AESH support, covered by Education national, as was previously the case in high school and college. (…) In a situation like this, nearly 8,000 euros per month are mobilized by the department.”
In parallel with its care assistant, the department finances part of the adapted university accommodation, classified as a medico-social establishment, in which Anaëlle resides, who pays a monthly rent of 500 euros.
Faced with the situation, Anaëlle tries not to lose hope: “I have the impression that people don’t see me as a student. I am constantly reminded of my situation, it is difficult to live with but I do not want to give up on my future.”
