Born on November 16, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, she took her religious vows with the congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion in 1931. A year later, she left for the Mediterranean and discovered Egypt. She settled in Cairo and fought alongside the garbage collectors for more than 20 years against poverty and exclusion.
In 1980, she founded the Asmae-Sister Emmanuelle association and helped thousands of children worldwide by building schools, healthcare centers, and fostering dialogue between Jews and Muslims, from Egypt to Sudan, Lebanon to the Philippines, India to Burkina Faso.
Throughout the world, Sister Emmanuelle’s calls for help were heard, and many structures were established. In Nice, the [Friends Of Children (ADE)](https://www.nicepremium.fr/article/les-amis-des-enfants…-du-soudan.830.html) have been collecting donations for several years in response to the request from Sister Emmanuelle and Sister Sara to feed the most deprived children of the planet, particularly in [Sudan](https://www.nicepremium.fr/article/video-le-darfour-nous-en-parlons-maintenant-agissons-.2035.html).
In August 2008, a few months before turning one hundred, Sister Emmanuelle published “I am One Hundred Years Old and I Wanted to Tell You,” in which she drew lessons from the past century.
### France’s Respect
The Franco-Belgian nun, known in the hearts of the French for her straightforwardness and vitality, managed to earn everyone’s recognition.
For the President of the Republic, Sister Emmanuelle “was a woman of faith with high convictions, but also a woman of action, for whom charity was achieved through concrete acts of solidarity and fraternity around the world.” Nicolas Sarkozy also paid tribute to “the sparkling, smiling, and energetic personality of Sister Emmanuelle, who knew how to address us informally to touch our hearts, our certainties, and our comfort.”
Like Abbé Pierre, she remains a symbol of the cause of the underprivileged. Having passed away on the night of October 19, Sister Emmanuelle will be buried on Wednesday, “in the strictest privacy,” in Callian, in Var.
