While one child out of three does not go on vacation, the Caritas Alsace association allows children from disadvantaged families to benefit from a semblance of summer scenery. For the past 70 years, children have been welcomed every summer into families where they enjoy various activities for a fortnight. In August, thirty small Alsatians go to families in the region. Our journalist, Charlotte Baechler, went to meet one of them.
It is the second summer that this Alsatian family welcomes Israel, seven years, for the holidays. The rest of the year, the boy lives with his mother, sister and brother on the 17th floor of a tower about a hundred kilometers away.
These holidays allow him not only to change environment but also to find Nathan, one year younger than him.
"Like a fish in water"
As for the parents, Bernard and his companion, they did not hesitate to repeat the experience this year. "There, I think he's very good, he's coming out of his usual city, he's in the country, there was a very small apprehension, but he immediately felt like a fish in the water," Bernard notes.
"We only have one place to eat and one bed, and we do not change our habits, we offer the same to Israel as we do to Nathan, we do not make differences. They are under our same rules, have the same rights and duties, "said the mother.
Next summer, Israel will be welcome again in the family. He will go with her, in Brittany, to her holiday home.