Operation Brotherhood

In mid-1954, the group effort known as OPERATION BROTHERHOOD was originated in the Philippines to help meet the medical and relief needs of the tens of thousands of refugees and wounded who were flooding from embattled areas of Vietnam into crowded Saigon and Cholon. 

The late President Ramon Magsaysay personally helped provide initial impetus to the drive for the succor of war-ravaged Vietnam and the uprooted families who had sought in the south a sanctuary not hostile to their faith or political convictions. The first team of seven doctors and three nurses was flown to Saigon aboard a Philippine Red Cross plane in October 1954. Before closing their work in Vietnam in December 1956, OPERATION BROTHERHOOD teams had treated some 730,000 persons. Since January 1957, a 50-member group has given treatment to another 250,000 persons in Laos. 

The OPERATION’s impact has been felt not only in terms of lives saved and better health attained. Of equal importance has been its heartening demonstration, in keeping with the creed of its civic sponsor, that “the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations.” 

Initially a project of the Philippine Junior Chamber of Commerce, OPERATION BROTHERHOOD was immediately taken up by the Asian Jaycees and later was selected as the Junior Chamber International project for 1955. Other organizations, government agencies and individuals have also made important contributions. Altogether, material aid in cash, medicines and supplies — in some instances bolstered by actual participation through medical teams — has been received from Australia, Burma, Canada, Ceylon, the Republic of China, England, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaya, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States.

In recognizing this group effort, the Board of Trustees makes particular reference to those men and women who have actively participated in this work. The Board of Trustees also recognizes, by extension, the OPERATION’s civic sponsor and all of those others in many countries who have rallied to its support. 

The first Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding is given to OPERATION BROTHERHOOD in acknowledgement of the spirit of service to other peoples in a time of need, with which it was conceived and has been carried forward, as well as the international amity it has fostered.

OPERATION BROTHERHOOD is a product of dreams made into reality by the faith, confidence, and generosity of men of good will.

OPERATION BROTHERHOOD believes that only through the demonstration of good will can we hope to banish the suspicion and hostility with which neighbor looks upon neighbor in these insecure times. It believes that only if fear and suspicion can give way to faith and understanding can any program of social or economic betterment hope to begin and succeed. 

OPERATION BROTHERHOOD has only used the simple maxims that were taught to all of us as children: to love all men as brothers; to love one’s neighbors as oneself; and to do unto others as one would have others do unto oneself. If OPERATION BROTHERHOOD has won any success in the eyes of the people it has served, it has been due to the dedication of its personnel to these principles learned in childhood. 

If OPERATION BROTHERHOOD has been able to translate these maxims into reality, it has been due to the generosity and faith of those who have contributed to its efforts. 

The Jaycees of Asia, and particularly those of the Philippines, lent it their support, and the Junior Chamber International named it their main project for the years 1954 through 1956. Since then, OPERATION BROTHERHOOD has become an independent project sponsored by the Jaycees in the Philippines and Laos. Support comes from many nations whose citizens make possible the continuance of this work, and we pay tribute to all our patrons in the free world, particularly that great friend of Asia, the United States of America. 

Today, in particular, we would like to pay homage to the late President Ramon Magsaysay, for he was one of the very first to whom this project was presented. Warned that it would be controversial as our own country needed programs of this nature as badly as our neighbors, it is only fitting that you know his reply. It was this: 

“We have been assisted in our hour of need by generous friends. Shall we then deny our help to our neighbors when they are in need of it? Human misery knows no national boundaries. By all means, help them. And if there is anything that I and this government can do to help, please feel free to come to me.”

President Magsaysay is dead. But his words shall always live with us. 

And we are proud to say that our President who has succeeded him has been as unstinting in his support of this movement. We would like to take this occasion also to pay tribute to President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam, and to the Royal Government of Laos, for the hospitality, kindness and support that they have given to the members of OPERATION BROTHERHOOD who have been privileged to serve in their countries, and who have been made to feel not strangers but welcome friends and brothers. Likewise, we pay tribute to those who have allowed their loved ones to serve in foreign lands, especially to the parents of our three comrades whose third death anniversary we observed only four days ago. 

There is a tendency today to brand anyone engaged in business and industry as arrogant, selfish, and rapacious capitalists. Yet it has been the contributions of these men that have made possible our work, whose assistance has been characterized by true altruism. They have realized that the main concern of any thriving enterprise is the upliftment of the spiritual and social welfare of the individual. They, more than any group, recognized that only through mutual prosperity can progress be achieved. 

It is to these men, institutions and governments that we dedicate this Award which your Foundation has so graciously given to us, and which we accept with deep humility. You, our patrons and friends, have given to us a great blessing, for you have rekindled in us an abiding faith in the precept of our childhood” that of Christian love. By your great kindness, we have been privileged to lighten in some little way the dreadful burden of misery that afflicts our part of the world today. 

We hope that we have been able to instill in those among whom we have worked our common message: that they are not alone; that the brotherhood of man transcends national boundaries. On behalf of all my co-workers, I thank each and every one of you.