The Damien Foundation and ILEP

Our initiative

Pierre Van den Wijngaert was secretary general of the Damien Foundation. At the beginning of the sixties, he thought it was high time to create other associations throughout Europe, similar to the Damien Foundation. He contacted the Picpus Fathers in Spain and travelled throughout Europe in order to find people who would be willing to form associations to pursue the work of Father Damien.

A network of associations

Very soon, Pierre Van den Wijngaert realised initiatives already existed, but that often these associations did not know about the others' existence. So he decided to create a network of associations which would share a common goal, to wipe out leprosy and do away with its consequences. The organisation would serve to coordinate aid and to exchange experiences relating to cooperation made by different associations on the ground. Its mission was to support medical, scientific, social and humanitarian efforts throughout the world and to help socially reinsert persons having suffered from leprosy, as well as to prevent and eliminate the disease. Two years later, The European Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, ELEP, was created. This was to be the first step towards an international federation.

In 1966

Finally, in 1966, The International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, ILEP, was founded. It included fifteen non-governmental organisations, based in thirteen countries. Over time, the Federation developed a set of tools to ensure good coordination. Today, coordination covers not only operational or financial matters, but to an equal degree medical and social matters, the production and distribution of teaching material, representational work and fund collection.