Joseph Wresinski

Joseph Wresinski ( fr. Joseph Wresinski , Polish. Józef Wrzesiński ; February 12, 1917 , Angers , France - February 14, 1988 , Suren , France) - French Catholic priest, public figure, philosopher, human rights activist, founder of the international movement ATD Fourth World .

Born into a family of immigrants hiding in France during the First World War. Mother is Spanish, father is Pole. Joseph's childhood passed in poverty ^[3] . Joseph Wresinski devoted his mature life to the fight against various forms of poverty.

In 1946, Joseph Wresinski was ordained a Catholic priest. In 1954, at the suggestion of the bishop, he began his service in the homeless camp of the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand , where 252 families lived ^[4] . The following year, Joseph Wresinsky, together with the inhabitants of the slums in Noisy-le-Grand, founded the movement known later as the Fourth World ATD , which was called to fight for the rights of the poorest segments of the population. Over time, volunteers join Joseph Vresinsky. Thanks to supporters of Vresinsky’s ideas and volunteers from different countries, the movement is becoming international.

Joseph Vresinsky considered representatives of the poorest and most socially excluded layers of the population, with their life experience and knowledge, the most important partners in creating social policy. Over the years, with the Fourth World ATD movement, he tried to influence French society and politics in such a way that the opinions and needs of the poor are truly taken into account.

At the initiative of Vresinsky October 17, 1987 in Paris on the square. Trocadero in the presence of a hundred thousandth manifestation was inaugurated a memorial stone in memory of victims of poverty ^[5] . Since 1992, October 17th has been declared by the UN General Assembly International Poverty Reduction Day ^[6] .

Joseph Wresinski was buried in Mary-sur-Oise, not far from Paris.