CLICK HERE TO SIGN ANA’S CHANGE.ORG PETITION FOR AN ASBESTOS PROHIBITION BILL IN COLOMBIA
Posted on January 9, 2017
With deep sadness we’ve learned about the passing of Ana Cecilia Niño Robles, an extraordinary Mesothelioma Warrior, who was only 41. Please join me in sending heartfelt condolences to her husband, Daniel Pineda, their baby daughter, and the countless loved ones heartbroken by this loss.
Ana lived in Bogota, Colombia, where she worked as a journalist exposing the country’s asbestos problem. She and Daniel dedicated their lives to fighting for an asbestos-free Colombia and world. The couple shared their story with ADAO last year in a beautiful submission titled “Love is Stronger Than Cancer.”
Ana was diagnosed in 2014, just a year after giving birth to her first child. When she was young, Ana grew up near an Eternit factory, where asbestos tiles and other goods were manufactured. Eternit factories are notorious around the world for causing massive cancer clusters.
Ana, like so many, was victimized by a corporation whose negligence has left thousands sickened and killed, but instead of giving into despair, she used her life and story to fight back.
“I can not deny that this event changed my life. But one thing I’m sure, I want to live for my family and also fight for this information to be known, as those who suffer from this disease never found out the cause.”
Ana was a leader in Colombia’s anti-asbestos movement, and her life and death have been written about several times in Colombian media. Their Change.org petition for an asbestos prohibition bill has nearly 40,000 signatures — just over 10,000 away from the goal of 50,000. Please support Ana’s cause and the global asbestos ban movement by signing her petition.
Ana and Daniel have made a profound impact on asbestos advocacy in Colombia, and now it is up to us to carry on the fight in her honor. An obituary for Ana in Colombia’s La Reporteria put it beautifully: “seguir es justamente el mejor legado que deja Ana Cecilia Niño” / “to continue is precisely the best legacy left by Ana Cecilia Niño.”
In unity,
Linda