The group effort known as OPERATION BROTHERHOOD was originally undertaken to assist the beleaguered people and government of Vietnam by providing medical and relief services.

In mid-1954, tens of thousands of refugees and wounded were flooding from embattled areas of Vietnam into crowded Saigon and Cholon. The inspiration to help, OPERATION BROTHERHOOD Chairman Oscar J. Arellano relates, came from witnessing the endeavors of Vietnam's public-spirited citizens and Red Cross workers to set up emergency dispensaries to meet the urgent medical needs of these uprooted and war-weary people.

Learning that in all of Vietnam there were only some 150 trained doctors, the Philippine Jaycees decided that they, in a country with a comparatively large reservoir of medical professionals, could not stand idly by while neighboring Vietnam suffered.

OPERATION BROTHERHOOD was officially begun as a Philippine project on August 15, 1954. Immediately thereafter, it was taken up by the Jaycees in Asia as an Asian project.

In October 1954, the same month that the first team of seven doctors and three nurses left Manila for Vietnam, the delegates from 56 countries attending the Ninth World Conference of the Junior Chamber International unanimously supported OPERATION BROTHERHOOD as the JCI project for 1955.

Since then material aid in cash, medicines and supplies, and in some instances volunteer medical teams, have come from Jaycee groups and other organizations, government agencies and private individuals in 14 countries and two British Crown Colonies.

As the effort was publicized, hundreds of Filipino doctors and nurses offered their services. Out of every 10, at least two volunteered to serve without pay. OPERATION BROTHERHOOD's problem was not to get personnel but to turn away volunteers for lack of funds.

During the first half of 1955, 51 volunteers were in Vietnam. By April 1956, the populace of 11 areas had received medical and relief assistance from the OPERATION's teams: Saigon, Cholon, Camau, Gia Rai, Quang Ngai, Long Xuyen, Qui Nhon Blao, Tay Quong Tri, Phan Thiet, Tay Ninh and Bachlieu.

Tragedy struck OPERATION BROTHERHOOD on August 27, 1955, when three team members met their death. Dr. José D. Alejos, Nurse Adela D. Pimentel and Interpreter-Nurses Aide Yvonne Ocampo were on their way to the refugee village of Go-chai when their frail boat capsized on the Waico River. In Tay Ninh Province, a grateful populace has erected a monument in their memory.

Before operations closed in Vietnam on December 21, 1956, preparatory to moving over to Laos, overall personnel numbered 152. Included were seven surgeons, 19 physicians, 61 nurses, eight dentists and nine social workers. Although most of these were Filipinos, volunteers also came from Taiwan, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore-Malaya and Thailand.

Reduced in scale since Laos has a smaller population than Vietnam and no refugee problem, a 50-member group with headquarters at Vientiane has been at work since January 1957. Composed largely of medical personnel, this group also includes nutritionists, agriculturists and social workers.

The medical teams of OPERATION BROTHERHOOD have, to date, completed nearly a million treatments—some 730,000 in Vietnam and another 250,000 in Laos—working at the rate of approximately 12,500 treatments per month. Many serious surgical operations have been handled under primitive conditions in remote sectors. Adequate drugs and clinical equipment are luxuries the teams have often had to do without.

OPERATION BROTHERHOOD's indefatigable workers have frequently and voluntarily risked personal peril to help villagers living in isolated areas. Observers have noted that a spirit of service was shown also in quiet ways through efforts to reach out the hand of friendship and warmth to those in whose midst the teams moved.

"The people of the Philippines," President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam stated, "have brought us the breath of courage and a share of that inner strength which only a free people know."

August 1958
Manila

REFERENCES:

Reports of Operation Brotherhood.

Speech of the late President Ramon Magsaysay before the 8th National Convention of the Philippine Jaycees, Baguio City, May 3,1956.