Mas de Rivel: “a place to give back their autonomy to children with disabilities, and to help parents”

Louisa and her daughter Mia. The mother trained in equine therapy in order to support children with disabilities. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Le Mas de Rivel, run by Jérôme and Louisa Douzelet, is under construction. The couple wants to set up an educational farm there to accommodate children with disabilities, and offer a place of "respite and understanding” for parents.

Perched in the Barjac countryside, Mas Rivel could become a unique place of its kind. Louisa and Jérôme, its owners, are transforming this former hotel into a reception center adapted for children with disabilities, a project born from their personal experience with their daughter Mia, 20 years old. With its vegetable garden, its animals and its lodgings, Mas Rivel wants, in the long term, to offer a human and inclusive alternative to families often left to their own devices.

An educational farm to support parents and children

“We want to create a structure for the disabled, but also recreate social, rural and country ties“, Jérôme explains straight away. To do this, the Douzelets want to set up various workshops to “give children back their autonomy”. In particular, wheelchair maintenance and repair workshops, “maintenance and purchase are very expensive. Parents don't know that they can get help. We would like a mechanic employee, perhaps with a disability, to explain to families how to repair the chairs“.

Animals, horses and donkeys in particular, will play a key role in the equine therapy sessions. “It's not just riding horses“, Louisa explains. “We adapt to the disability. Everything will be well organized, with colored boxes where the children will pick from to start their activities. It's the beginning of autonomy.” The benefits go far beyond motor skills.

“The horse feels all the emotions, it's by feeling. Even quadriplegic children can participate. We have the equipment for that, and a suitable ramp is under construction“, continues Jérôme. And Louisa adds: “The wheelchairs are very low, but on the back of a horse, they will be above us. When they get on it, they feel like they are walking, it moves their body and forces them to stand up straight.“

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The first equine therapy tests have been successfully completed, and the activities are expected to open in the spring. But everything remains to be done. “Creating a place like this is hell“, confides Jérôme, evoking the financial and human cost of such a project. “Parents should not condemn themselves to living only to take care of their children. And children do not want that either. They have the right to an independent social life, and so do their parents“, he insists. By emphasizing inclusion and humanity, Mas Rivel wants to become a specialized center in the north of Gard. “There are very few of them at the moment“, the Douzelets lament.

Jérôme Douzelet wants to adapt eight of the eleven guest rooms for people in wheelchairs. Midi Libre – ALEXIS BETHUNE

“At 20, they have to change establishments. But the only options are “death houses” “

While the project seems solid, it faces many obstacles. The current system does not always allow atypical initiatives to develop. “We need to return to human-sized structures. But the ARS (Regional Health Agency) wants projects that fit into their boxes. Ours does not fit into them, despite verbal support“, deplores Jérôme, who warns “we won't give up because we know what it feels like to be lost.”

The problem is all the more urgent because there is a serious lack of solutions for young adults with disabilities. “At 20, they have to change schools. But the only options are “death houses” “, Louisa complains. This situation creates blockages. Schools for minors often continue to take in young adults, due to a lack of alternative solutions, but this reduces the places available for younger children. “When my daughter was 15, we didn't have any places because of that. It's not the parents' fault, but the system's“, adds her husband.

Despite these difficulties, the family is not giving up. “The parents are desperate. We're going to help them“, says Jérôme. Mas Rivel is already in contact with around sixty families and hopes to be able to help around a hundred people in the long term.

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