Our history :

The genesis of Islands of Peace

In 1960, Dominique Pire had already behind him a long history of social action. This Dominican priest, who had just turned 50, was still crowned with glory from the Nobel Peace Prize which he received in 1958 for the state of mind that animated his work for the benefit of the "displaced people" - today we would call them refugees - in a Europe devastated by the Second World War.

The Pakistani government thought that this man could help solve the problem of thousands of refugees displaced by the separation of British India between Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, after independence in 1947. During his visit there, Dominique Pire witnessed another tragedy: East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) was devastated by a cyclone of which the intensity had never been experienced before. The region was disaster struck. Admittedly, there was not much in the region before, but now, the desolation was at its peak. More serious still, the hope of a better future had disappeared .

Dominique Pire was touched by his encounter with the desolated populations. The thought of these victims haunted him. He wanted to do something for these people. On his return to Belgium, he acquired advice from various experts who became his closest collaborators.

The logic that was inherent in his approach and his work is held in this famous quote:

"To act without knowledge is carelessness, to know without acting is cowardice"

>Biography of Dominique Pire (in French)

>Dominique Pire at the Nobel Foundation

The philosophy behind the idea

In his intention to help the disaster victims, Dominique Pire rejected the idea to send food and health humanitarian assistance, as was the norm at the time in cases of natural disasters.

What interested him, was what could be done after the period of acute crisis. Elsewhere, it would have been advised to rebuild everything, but there in the Delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, there was not much to rebuild. At the time, there was nothing in the region that could guarantee the population a return to any form of economic stability.

Thus the problem was enormous, disproportionate, insoluble.

However, an idea soon generated from the exchanges between Dominique Pire and his three close collaborators, the economist, Jacques Lefevre, the agronomist, Vladimir Drachoussof and the doctor, Charles Dricot. "What if we were to help a group of men and women to master their own destiny until they can evolve alone?"

This simple idea, must be practised at a lower scale, if its application should remain conceivable. It is the beginning of the principle of self-help, which has been implemented through the projects of Islands of Peace, later symbolised by a proverb of Confucius:

"If you give a fish to a man, he will eat one day. If you teach him how to fish, he will eat everyday."

Rapidly, Dominique Pire contemplated to expand his action. His open-mindness, truly universal, told him to help others, but, for nothing in the world, would he have wanted to be associated to the ulterior motive of philosophic, cultural or religious recuperation.

His ecumenical approach was founded upon a deep respect of ideas, opinions, cultures and religion of men and women whom he faced.

It is the "brotherly dialogue" which is the second cornerstone of Islands of Peace.

>Further reading about the philosophy of action of Islands of Peace

Gohira, the first Island of Peace

With very limited resources and practically no funding guarantees, Dominique Pire decided, in 1962, to found his first Island of Peace, Gohira. Gohira, a site near of the Ganges delta, was chosen for its long term potential.

"Here, we want to achieve real effectiveness: accomplish the mobilisation of all the existing forces of change, practice self-help, limit our help to 5 years and practice it at the human level of the individual in his/her village"

In May 1967, the whole foreign team left Bangladesh, leaving behind, among other signs of success, 38 co-operatives. "A threshold for moving ahead, a point of no return, has been reached in the minds of the inhabitants of the Island of Peace." The dynamic became autonomous, new co-operatives were emerging and, supreme reward, the region of Gohira was able to recover, by its own means, from another cyclone and was able to pursue its development.

>Further reading about the Island of Peace Gohira

>Further reading about other actions of Islands of Peace