Louisette Buchard-Molteni
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June 18, 1933
Louisette Buchard-Molteni | |
|---|---|
| Born | Louise Molteni June 18, 1933 Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Died | March 7, 2004 (aged 70) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Occupations | Artist, activist |
| Known for | Advocacy for recognition of wrongs suffered by placed children |
Louisette Buchard-Molteni (born Louise Molteni; 18 June 1933 – 7 March 2004) was a Swiss artist and activist who was subjected to coercive measures for assistance purposes and extra-familial placements as a child. She became one of the earliest survivors to publicly campaign for official recognition of the wrongs suffered by placed children in Switzerland, and among the first to publish a personal testimony on the subject.
Childhood and placements
Louisette Molteni was the youngest of five daughters of Giovanni Molteni, a Ticinese entrepreneur of Italian origin, and Luigia née Longhi. After her parents divorced in 1938, her mother placed her in the orphanage of La Providence in Fribourg (1938–1940). At the age of eight, following the death of her father, she was placed at the Ricovero per l'infanzia abbandonata Erminio von Mentlen (1941–1948) in Bellinzona, on account of her Ticinese origins, where she was required to learn Italian. She was subsequently transferred from institution to institution until she came of age, including the reformatories San Girolamo Emiliani in Faido and Bon Pasteur in Villars-les-Joncs (where she relearned French), a foster family in Brunnen (where she learned Swiss German), the cantonal neuropsychiatric hospital in Mendrisio, and the prisons of Lugano, Altstätten, and Bellechasse. She experienced 13 placements between 1948 and 1953 without having committed any offense. She was also placed as a domestic worker in Zurich and in workers' residences in Lugano. Throughout this period she was subjected to arbitrary decisions and physical, psychological, medical, and sexual violence, as well as unpaid forced labor including cleaning and textile work.[1]
Adult life
In 1954, a few months after reaching civil majority (age 20), Molteni gave birth to her first child alone, the father having refused any involvement. Two years later, she married Gaston Buchard, a pastry baker. Together they ran two businesses in Lausanne. The couple had one daughter.[1]
