Italian honoured for building boats and bridges of friendship

Awarded ‘Chevalier (knight) de l’ Ordre National du Merite’:

by Surekha GALAGODA

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A writer, a photographer and most of all a man with a large heart Philippe Fabry was honoured with the decoration of ‘Chevalier (Knight) de l’Ordre National du Merite’ by French Ambassador Jean Bernard de Vaivre recently at his residence in Colombo.

Fabry was honoured with this decoration for the numerous activities accomplished during the past few years in Asia and particularly in Sri Lanka.

He is considered as one of the few people engaged in building bridges of friendship between France and Sri Lanka through his numerous talents and generosity.

Fabry has built two boat yards in Beliatta and Batticaloa to train people to build boats. The Batticaloa team comprises all females and “they are fantastic”, he said.

Born in 1952, Fabry left France very early in life to travel around the world. On his first visit to Sri Lanka in 1980, he worked as a mahout at the Elephant Village of S. R. A. Millangoda for a few months before he left for Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney and around the world.

Several years later, while again in Singapore, Fabry was offered the post of GM of Alison and Son, a company working for Levi’s and other major brands. He came with his family and settled down in Negombo initially but shifted to Colombo due to his children’s schooling after eight years. Initially the company placed orders in Seeduwa, Malabe and Horana.

The designing offices were in Italy and France while the head office was in Hong Kong.

There were equivalent production in China as well which made them to decide to close the operations in Sri Lanka.

“I was offered a posting in Hong Kong but I turned it down and stayed back and met Prof. Senaka Bandaranayake at the Central Cultural Fund and set up the photo archives on a voluntary basis. I was also working for the French Photo Agency SIPA as a photographer”, said Fabry.

Voracious reader

He is a voracious reader and does translations from French to English and vice versa so that people of both countries, France and Sri Lanka, get an opportunity to read the rich literature which otherwise would go unread due to the language barrier.

He usually reads not one but many books at a given time. In addition he had published three books earlier: two in French and one in English.

“2004 December 26 changed the life of many and so was mine. French people and friends called and requested me to do something for the people of Sri Lanka saying that they will send the funds. My family and I saw the devastation and there has been no turning back since then”, said Fabry.

He incorporated the NGO Sri Lanka Solidarity to support the fishing community, build homes and publish a magazine for children. Initially the NGO received about 2 mln Euros.

To support the fishing community Fabry built two boat yards in Beliatta and Batticaloa where boats are built using local materials and workers.

This helps the local economy as well. The boat yards have trained about 25 people and now they have the qualification to manufacture boats and earn an income. “The boats are given to the fishing community as donations and now we have upgraded ourselves to building multi-day boats.

When we donate a boat all the equipment that is needed by a fisherman is also donated so that he can fish immediately and make an income. It is impossible for Sri Lanka to replace what was lost. Therefore, they needed some help to replace the lost fleet.”

Eco friendly

Fabry built a village in a 75-acre land in Hambantota, which is totally eco friendly.

The village has a covered market, shop-houses, shops, sports ground and stand, pre-school, cultural centre, an ambalama as well as a park and is surrounded by a green belt where an extra thousand trees have been planted.

He said that none of the existing trees was felled while building the village while wood from plantations in the country was used for all requirements of wood.

In addition concrete rafters and compact soil blocks were used for the walls instead of cement blocks.

He said that there are many benefits of using compact soil blocks which includes not using river sand since the collection of sand from the rivers’ bed makes them deeper and then filled with salt water. Besides that, very little cement is needed and there is no baking, which saves the wood and the forests.

He said that when he started the project he only had funds for a few houses but so far he has been able to manage the project. Fabry has built 120 houses where Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims live in harmony. Yuti is a tri-lingual magazine he initiated and publishes for curious children and it is full of information, facts and figures. It is distributed free.

He is also the owner of Viator Publications, which has published many books including the Essential Guide for Jaffna and its region as well as the Essential guide for Anuradhapura and its region.

These books are written by Fabry and most importantly, all the drawings are also by him.

At present he is in the process of preparing a guide for Colombo: “I have finished the text but the sketches take a lot of time,” he said with humility.

He is also reading some Italian books to ensure that he doesn’t forget his Italian.

A father of three children, his sole aim in life is to work for the benefit of the others and preserve nature.