In 2023, 96,700 children were victims of physical violence in France, more than half of them within their family home. 119, the toll-free number for children in danger, received more than 40,000 calls last year and a child dies every seven days, the victim of abuse.
“We must do more to protect children,” urges Nadia Heron, martyred by her mother from birth and who recounted her ordeal to her friend Véronique Bouyenval who wrote a book, “Nadia, a Stolen Childhood” (Amazon editions). “If making my story public raises local awareness, my suffering will not have been in vain,’ says Nadia, who is now 49 and now lives in Essonnienne, in France's Normandy region. The debate was inspired by the painful story of Nadia Héron, a former abused child who told her story in a recently published book, the book ‘Nadia’.