But if you have not had the good luck to have met this extraordinary young nonagenarian, with a heart literally bursting with love for the poor and the destitute of this world, frail-looking but with an indomitable will, -if you have never yet listened to her,- then the literature enclosed within this site will help you to begin to understand her personality and the depth of her achievements.

Sister Emmanuelle has lived for twelve years with the poorest of the destitute people of Egypt, in a poor suburb of Cairo, amongst the garbage-collectors and the rag-pickers who live in the fringe of society, literally upon the piles of refuse and garbage they collect in the city every day. It is a terrible shantytown where no policeman dares venture, a place where all the misery of the world, endemic illness, crime, ignorance and superstition seem to come together to make of it a place of horror and despair.

And yet, this is where Sister Emmanuelle has lived, in peace with herself and with her neighbors, finding in each one of them the image of a Lord of kindness and mercy. Then one day Sister Emmanuelle decided to do something long-lasting to give this community human dignity.

So she started in 1979 to tour the world to raise her first million dollars for her Egyptian protégés with the help of Associations that spring out in France, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland at her request... Since then her voice has been heard by thousands of donors in Europe and her achievements in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, the Philippines and Haiti -to name but a few of the twelve countries where she is present today through her projects-, have been remarkable.

At this moment one of the projects the Swiss Association helped to start in 1986 in Sudan and to develop into one of the world largest of its kind is in jeopardy for lack of funds.

And from her convent, where she is spending the rest of her life in prayer for her innumerable friends around the world, Sister Emmanuelle is raising once more her voice to call upon people of good will...