Remembering Abbe Pierre - the struggle continues

On the third anniversary of his death, Emmaus projects in the UK and France are remembering the Movement's founder, Abbé Pierre, and calling the world's attention to the continued suffering of homeless men and women.

In the UK, the national Coldest Nights campaign is drawing attention to the fact that homeless people are still dying on the streets in our cities, via a series of press adverts and the Coldest Nights website. The website includes a short film about the winter of 1954, when the deaths of a woman and baby on the freezing streets of Paris led Abbé Pierre to broadcast an appeal for help for homeless families. This sparked the development of Emmaus Communities across France.

In France, Emmaus is inviting Parisians to join homeless people for breakfast on the streets, calling attention to the the plight of Afghan migrants. Many migrants came to the French capital following the closure of the Sangatte camp in 2003 and the eviction of the "Jungle" area in Calais last November. Around 150 young Afghans, including around 10 children, have no accommodation and are living in very difficult circumstances underneath canal bridges in the 10th "arrondissement" of the city. Find out more on the Association Emmaus website.

Abbé Pierre was a French priest, wartime resistance hero and tireless campaigner against poverty and homelessness, who died on 22nd January 2007 at the age of 94. The nineteen Emmaus Communities in the UK are still run along the lines established by Abbé Pierre in Paris in the 1950s - residents live and work together, collecting and re-selling donated furniture and household goods.

Though a media celebrity for decades and the recipient of many honours and decorations in France and abroad, Abbé Pierre remained what he termed “a flea in the ear of the great”, never shying away from uttering uncomfortable truths.

Remembering Abbe Pierre - the struggle continues

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