Marcel Farine

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Marcel Farine
Theres and Marcel Farine

Marcel Farine (born February 25, 1924 in Moutier , Switzerland; † March 27, 2008 in Zollikofen ) was a Swiss development worker .

Family and work

Marcel Farine came from a family that knew times of poverty. Farine worked professionally in the Swiss postal administration and from 1949 at the Universal Postal Union , where he worked for three decades. He was married to Theres Farine since 1949. There were eight children from the marriage. The couple also looked after a godson, the son of a leper from Cameroon .

Charitable commitment

Farine was already active at the age of 21 alongside his professional activities on a political and religious level. He sat down in the Christian youth workers and the trade union movement of Bern . He took z. B. on the station forecourt with the so-called " Welschen " young people between the ages of 16 and 18 who came from French-speaking Switzerland to learn German and to work. He initiated a club for recreational activities, sociability and support for the later professional path of the young people.

Farine campaigned for the Emmaus movement in Bern, which was created in 1956 following a lecture by Abbé Pierre in a Bern cellar. From here the workers of the movement set out to support those in need. Farine took over the presidency of the group "Friends of Emmaus" as one of the organizers. In 1958 he invited the members of the various Emmaus groups and communities to Geneva and founded the Emmaus Switzerland organization with them, which he headed for 32 years.

As part of his engagement, he was in contact with personalities such as Mother Teresa , Pope John Paul II , Raoul Follereau and Sister Emmanuelle .

Farine campaigned for the needy in the Third World and, together with the employees of Emmaus Bern, initiated the Emmaus Switzerland Leper Aid . Under the auspices of Emmaus Switzerland , he organized a campaign for thousands of starving children in thirteen countries. He sent volunteers to several countries and was busy a. with projects for the disabled, the blind and victims of earthquakes. He also advised young Africans in Switzerland and managed to get them training grants. At the same time, he continued to support people in need in Switzerland and, for example, ran children's camps for families in need in the mountains together with a friend.

At the request of Raoul Follereau and Abbé Pierre, he became the founding president of the International Association of Leprosy Aid (1966) and of Emmaus International (1969). In 1980 he worked with friends on a program for those in need in India , today's Emmaus Community Welfare Fund (ECOMWEL).

Under the motto “You can only reap happiness if you give yourself away”, Farine worked as a volunteer in Switzerland and internationally for 50 years. a. Disabled and lepers, led meetings, wrote articles, gave interviews and organized fundraising for the relief efforts. Hundreds of projects in 75 countries have been implemented by Emmaus Switzerland, Leper Aid, ECOMWEL and other institutions. The development concept of the projects always attached importance to the promotion of personal responsibility and self-help of the needy.

After resigning from his position as President of Emmaus Switzerland and helping lepers in 1990, Farine devoted himself even more to the young people, shared his experiences with them and tried to show them the path of love and mercy through lectures. In this way he reached about ten thousand young people a. a. in schools and parishes in Italy, France and Switzerland. Since 1995 he has also written articles and books.

Farine was supported in his social commitment and the spread of the gospel by his wife Theres, who was also active in numerous children's aid projects in Switzerland and the Third World - among other things, she was the founder of the children 's aid organization Kinderhilfe Emmaus in Bern.

Marcel Farine died of heart failure on March 27, 2008 at the age of 84.

Publications (selection)

  • Encounters of Hope. Free people from misery . Walter Verlag, Solothurn / Düsseldorf, 1994, ISBN 978-3-530-20151-2
  • Eugen Drewermann's lost paradise. Answer from a layperson to a theologian . Parvis-Verlag, Hauteville, 1996, ISBN 978-3-907523-79-7
  • A better world is possible. The problems of this time in the light of the gospel . Parvis-Verlag, Hauteville, 1999, ISBN 978-3-907525-33-3
  • The Sign of Contradiction , Roman, 2002, ISBN 978-3-0344-0068-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Freiburger Nachrichten: Encounters of Hope. December 24, 1994, accessed October 5, 2019 .
  2. ^ Newspaperarchives.ch: Marcel Farine. Retrieved October 6, 2019 .
  3. ^ Gérard Marin, Roland Bonnet: La Grande aventure d'Emmaüs . Grasset, 1969 ( google.de [accessed October 5, 2019]).
  4. ^ Victor Conzemius: Emmaus Movement. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 17, 2005 .
  5. ↑ a b book pick . Verlag Bücherpick, 1995 ( google.de [accessed October 5, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Traugott Voegeli-Tschirky: Marcel Farine, book review. Welsh Messenger, February 25, 2000, accessed October 5, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Swiss Medical Yearbook . B. Schwabe., 1988 ( google.de [accessed October 5, 2019]).
  8. ^ Key members. Retrieved October 5, 2019 (UK English).
  9. ^ Emmaus around the world. Retrieved October 5, 2019 .
  10. ↑ ECOMWEL - NGO. Retrieved October 5, 2019 (American English).
  11. ↑ Kinderhilfe Emmaus - Active since 1971. Retrieved October 5, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Farine, Marcel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss development worker
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Moutier , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 2008
Place of death Zollikofen