Invested in associations, a specialized educator, and now engaged in politics, Ingrid Dordain leads several lives at the same time. La Française fights for “different” children to be part of society. But also, so that their parents have a right to respite, and to a fulfilling professional life.
The calm after two whirlwind months. When she received us at her home in Amiens one afternoon at the end of June, Ingrid Dordain apologized for ” his tired head “. The legislative election campaign has just ended. For her first steps in politics, Picardy presented herself as a substitute for Barbara Pompili, former Minister of Ecology for Emmanuel Macron, re-elected MP in the Somme department. ” The battle was tough, you have to accept to take blows, especially as a woman she sighs. However, these are not the first blows she has taken. She has surrounded herself, over the years, with a “ thick shell ”, which cracks only in the presence of her close friends.
Ingrid Dordain grew up in a small town near Amiens in northern France. After the baccalaureate, she passed the special educator competition. ” I wanted to help others and work with the disabled “. First failure. There followed jobs at the factory, at the supermarket. Then she became a supervisor in a high school and enrolled in a sociology college in Amiens. She falls in love and, very quickly, becomes pregnant. Ingrid Dordain was 25 when Lucie was born in 2003. The pediatrician launched a first alert when she was 6 months old. ” I take it very badly, I’m in denial “, she says. But she observes Lucie and realizes that it takes a lot to stimulate her, that she does not support the gaze. The ENT doctor who follows the little girl slips to her one day: “ I am thinking of autism. ” The slap. ” 19 years ago, autism was necessarily the fault of the mother. And me, as I worked, I continued my studies in evening classes, I was made to feel guilty. “The couple separates, she finds herself a single mother. “ Lucie was a real tornado, she had to be watched constantly, it was very complicated. When I put her in school, it went wrong, I took her out. »
Diagnosis and guilt
The words “atypical autism” were put down in 2007, Lucie was 3 years old. Ingrid Dordain has to manage everything head-on: her daughter, work, studies, ” because I always had this objective of having my diploma as a specialized educator “, and she follows a psychoanalysis, “ necessary “. But also activism at SATED, a Picardy association for autistic children, which also supports parents.
Hyperactive, tenacious, in survival mode “, she does not want to be” just a mom “. Lucie is placed in a day hospital, then in boarding school during the week, in an IME (medico-educational institute). Then, Ingrid meets the man who will become her husband, gives birth to a little Roman girl, in 2009, and her life “stabilizes”. A year later, the love of his life dies of cancer. His gaze veils. ” I find myself alone again “. The judgment of some relatives and entourage comes back. ” They wanted me to stay at home, a stay-at-home mother, but I needed to have a professional life and continue my activism at SATED. »
With the association, of which she took the reins in 2009, she launched the project of a SATED house, an adapted leisure center, which would allow autistic children to spend weekends and holidays, without their parents. ” My guilt-free work is done by helping others to feel guilt-free. The right to respite for caregivers begins, at this time, to be recognized. With her team, she finds the funding for this unique project in the region, while continuing her training as a specialized educator. With big moments of doubts and discouragement. ” One day, Lucie threw all the notes for my dissertation into the bath. In 2015, she obtained the long-awaited diploma of specialized educator and a job in an Amiens integration association.
The policy to escalate needs
When the Covid arrives, what she has always refused to be, suddenly imposes herself: “ I find myself with Lucie and Romane at home, without help, I panic. “However, even if it is not always easy, because Lucie decompensates following the cessation of her care, the forties is surprised to appreciate these confined moments. ” I understood that I was capable of it. »
She leaves aside her activity at the SATED house, taken over by a larger structure, and engages in politics. ” Activism was no longer enough for me, it is necessary to bring up the needs of the field, in the field of disability, caregivers, integration “. She finds in the party of Barbara Pompili, affiliated with LaREM, ” common values, social and ecological listening, with consideration of economic reality “. Once again, Ingrid Dordain sorts out those around her, who do not understand her choice, “ because I have more of a left-wing profile “.
Coming from civil society, without any knowledge of political codes, the path is not easy. Especially since Lucie reaches majority, becomes an adult, and she fights once again to find him a place in a home of life ” where she is happy “. She gives herself time to find a place for herself in politics and begin to act concretely, to “ prevent and raise awareness about autism, but also about disability in general. Let’s stop talking about inclusion, the disabled are part of society, we shouldn’t have to fight, for example, for them to go to school, like all the other children. “.