1. The birth of the Foundation

At the end of 1992, deeply shaken by situations as extreme as the one that existed at the time in Somalia and by the disgraceful passivity of the international community, we took the decision to form a foundation. Its objective is that of helping, albeit in the small measure that lies within our possibilities, to alleviate such suffering and trying to eradicate the underlying causes. In spiritual terms the organization is characterized by strong ecumenical aspirations and of interfaith encounter, and in social and political terms by the conviction that it is necessary and urgent that we all unite our efforts in the face of the magnitude and gravity of these tragedies.

On the threshold of the 3^rd millennium humankind is conquering space and can instantly ascertain what is happening at any given point on our small planet. Yet in a display of total thoughtlessness we are able to live with the immense suffering of vast masses of our fellow human beings, victims of violence, illness and hunger. We are also capable of causing irreversible damage to our precious planet. Something is wrong with our species. Conscious of the fact that there is no time to lose in trying to change the course of these events and that we can all do more, however small our contribution may be, we decided to create the Foundation.

The Foundation is a non-denominational, non-governmental organization (NGO) founded at the end of 1992. It has its roots in a small Catholic community which had already been in existence for 24 years on the S’Olivar estate, situated in the lovely Mallorcan valley of Estellencs, from which it has inherited various characteristics. To cite some of these:

1) the centrality of contemplation and prayer in everyday life, a centrality that, after a quarter of a century, has evidently left its mark.

2) our belonging to the non-violence movement: we aim to be part of the 3^rd generation of a movement that was initiated by ‘dreamers’ like Gandhi and Luther King and continued in a 2^nd generation by, amongst others, Vinoba and Lanza del Vasto, and it was precisely the latter, the European disciple of Gandhi, who showed us and friends like Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the path to non-violence about 3 decades ago.

3) solidarity with the poorest of the poor: the 4 years that some of us spent with the Quechua Indians in the Andes, long before the Foundation was created, were one of the concrete manifestations of this solidarity.

4) a profound esteem for all that exists and a reverent respect for sister-mother earth: it is no accident that we have chosen to make the ‘Tramuntana’ mountain range our home for almost 3 decades.

At present it is composed of a larger group of friends, for whom so much absurd pain in our world, so much violence of the powerful towards the most defenseless, so much institutionalized injustice, so little solidarity with those materially less fortunate and with so many who are excluded from our comfortable society, so much cruelty to animals and destruction of the environment, is increasingly unbearable. We know however that a better world is possible, that forgiveness and truth are more powerful than hatred and lies, that time always brings justice, that the powerful in this world are vulnerable, that many utopias have been realized throughout history, that nothing and nobody is irremediably lost, that at any moment a miracle of reconciliation we no longer thought possible can surprise us. For all these reasons we have taken the decision to dedicate our best efforts to this task, in spite of our smallness and of our own limitations and contradictions.