Dear colleagues, dear friends,
It is with great sadness that we have learnt that Maria Reina Martín Ferreira Pimpão has gone home to the Lord.
For so many years, she was a pillar of the EZA network. Through EZA, together with the entire team of Fidestra, she organised so many seminars on such a wide variety of topics for her colleagues from workers’ organisations across Europe. She enriched so many seminars with her contributions. She was a committed participant in so many meetings of the EZA Council.
She was a fighter – among others for women’s rights. Also, her concern for young people was striking, a strong signal of intergenerational solidarity.
Her role, contribution and commitment to a just world cannot be emphasized enough.
But it was not only her professional expertise that enriched us all; it was her character, her kindness, her warmth and her smile.
EZA has not only lost its Vice-President, but a wonderful, strong, courageous woman. We are grateful that we were able to work with her and get to know her, we are thankful for what we were able to share with her. We look back with reverence and great respect on the unique woman that Maria Reina was.
We offer our heartfelt condolences to her son and our Friends from Fidestra.
We will miss her greatly but carry her for ever in our hearts. We are comforted by the certainty that she is now in God’s care…
May she rest in peace.
Luc Van den Brande (Presedent)
Piergiorgio Sciacqua (Co-President)
Sigrid Schraml (Secretary-General)