A Royal Visit !!! (20 November 2018)

Visit of Her Majesty Queen Mathilde and Mrs. Macron

A great day of strong emotions at La Maisonnée on Tuesday, November 20, 2018, where Her Majesty Queen Mathilde and Mrs Macron were received. The visit was supposed to last an hour but the visitors stayed an hour and a half, illustrating a clear interest in the people and the work! As a consequence, they arrived late at the official lunch that was prepared for them in the city of Leuven.

The visit was organized by Constellations in collaboration with the French Embassy as part of President Macron and his wife's state visit to Belgium.

Why La Maisonnée? Because we wanted to draw attention to the dual diagnosis (combination of mental disability and mental illness) and a new house for ten people with a double diagnosis that will be built on the site of La Maisonnée. This house illustrates the policy of Constellations, as it will be the result of a partnership between La Maisonnée and Constellations.

During the visit, it was a real joy to see the happiness of the people with mental disabilities. Many of them spontaneously kissed our visitors, who reacted graciously to this warmth reception.

The visit allowed us to talk about the problem of double diagnosis that affects one third of people with mental disabilities. It offered an opportunity for La Maisonnée to share its beautiful values and for Constellations to explain how we manage to create 200 places in six houses that are already open and three that are being developed.

As one would expect, Her Majesty the Queen showed a lot of interest in the creation of new houses in Belgium, while Mrs. Macron focused her questions on the aspect of mental illness, an area where there is still much work to be done in France.

Our visitors left La Maisonnée with the intention of strengthening cooperation between France and Belgium in this area.