[Cemetery workers bring a coffin to a tomb]
 
Buried alone
Listen [10:31]:
Each year hundreds of people die in France alone, without family or friends to bury them. Many are homeless, living on the street. French law gives everyone the right to a proper burial, free of charge. But if there’s no one to bury you, it’s just grave diggers lowering a body into the ground. A few years ago, a group of homeless advocates decided to change this by being present at every burial of an unclaimed body. The idea is that paying respect to the dead humanizes the living...

This piece was produced for RFI and aired September 14, 2009.

Producer: Sarah Elzas
Recorded in Thiais and Paris, France
Photo: www.mortsdelarue.org

() comments
AUDIO
  ->
TEXT
  ->
  ->
  ->
LINKS
  ->
  ->
  ->
 



top of page ^

Copyright © 2004-2014 Sarah Elzas. All Rights Reserved.
Material on this site may only be used with express permission from Sarah Elzas.
ToucanRadio logo designed by Juliana Douglas.