The 213° week of the vigil
in front of WHO
|
The death of Huguette Pellerin |
| Huguette Pellerin Vigil in October 2008   Franceline Fanton and Huguette Pellerin (right) in front of WHO, 23rd October 2008 |
Citizen and activist, Huguette Pellerin died on the 5th of July 2009 at the age of 77 years. Hundreds of neighbours, friends and activists were present to pay their last tribute to this small, yet great lady. Today we want to thank her for her never-failing commitment to the defense of the environment, the ecology and the human rights. She first dedicated her efforts (along with her union-working husband and their five children) to the improvement of her own neighborhood, before being inspired by the plights of the entire district of Villeurbanne, opening her flat and her garage (which looked like a subsidiary of Emmaüs!) to all those in need, and fighting against home-expulsions. She “lived simply so that others could simply live”. “Act locally, think globally”: quickly became her motto and she ended up being concerned with all the bigger problems of our World. For 39 years, one of her biggest battle was her fight against nuclear technology. She was an active member of the Committee Malville during the building of the super-reactor Super-Phénix, and she continuously fought for a nuclear-free Rhône-Alpes region. A discreet activist, she was nevertheless present during the creation of the Network “Sortir du Nucléaire” (Get away from Nuclear Technology), bringing to the table her knowledge of the area, searching for conference rooms, assisting with the transport of the equipment with her small trailer, washing dishcloths etc… She was ever-present in every action, at every demonstration, every stand of information, dressed in a white overall, holding signs to silently tell to the passengers of the FRENCH NATIONAL RAILWAY COMPANY of the trains carrying radioactive waste on the railway… she walked, and she walked... She also made thousands of phone calls, typed hundreds of minutes on her old writing-machine, hand-delivered many letters, and had her own telephone number written at the back of the Association’s bags. For the demonstrations that were held outside of Lyon, she organized the transport, an often ungrateful task. On the 17th of March 2007, while she had just been diagnosed with a serious illness, she walked with us to promote clean energies, energy-saving and to denounce nuclear technology. In October 2008, Huguette was in Geneva to protest in front of the Worldwide Organization of Health (WHO) buildings against the subordination of WHO to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). At the beginning of 2009, already very ill, Huguette was still distributing pamphlets to reinforce an environmental association in Villeurbanne (France) Huguette was a driving force of the ecological activism in Lyon (France), she taught us a lot and we shall try to follow her lead and go on. On behalf of her friends from all the associations |
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