Philippe Fabry

Philippe Fabry born August 28, 1952, Philippe Fabry left France in 1976 to travel the world. Traveller, photographer, author and adventurer, he is also a sailor, an International aid worker and a publisher.
== Biography ==
It was on a motorcycle that Philippe Fabry undertook his first travels in the 1970s: Morocco, Central Europe, Greece, Turkey ... and above all, he achieved a first when with an expedition in the Sahara desert by motorcycle in 1974. Two riders on a single motorbike, with no assistance .
At the beginning of 1976 he left France, hitchhiking to discover the world. After crossing the Iberian Peninsula, he embarked aboard the Kastel Congo in Agadir, a freighter which plied the coasts of West Africa. Travel opportunities then lead him to drive trucks across the Sahara, and to organise a Zodiac expedition on the Ogooué river.
Philippe Fabry then changed continent and arrived in Asia in 1981. In Sri Lanka, he joined an elephant training centre, before catching a boat to India, and flying to Singapore, Indonesia… touring the world before returning to the Indian subcontinent, trekking to the Annapurna base camp and then roaming Rajasthan on the back of a camel bought at the mela (camel fair) of Phalodi.
In 1984, he was posted to Quetta on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as head of Action Against Hunger to manage an important medical assistance programme for refugees. In addition to the two clinics for women and children in the largest camps, a large vaccination campaign was launched in the summer of 1984 in Pir Alizaï, Surhab and Saranan. 201,200 patients went through the organisation’s 15 vaccination centres by May 1988. Later in the year, a vast sanitation programme was launched supplying more than 7,000 latrines, 700 wells, 650 sand filters, and more. At the start of the following year, under an UNHCR initiative, Action Against Hunger set up an income generating programme in these camps. 2,250 workshops and/or businesses were created . Later, still with the partnership of UNHCR, Philippe Fabry developed a re-forestation programme in the refugee camps.
In 1985 a French Honorary Consulate was opened in Balochistan to which he was appointed as the first Consul. Then, from the mid-1980s Philippe Fabry became a freelance photographer for Sipa, an international photography agency.
At the end of 1988 he was asked by Action Against Hunger to go on an exploratory mission to Haiti.
Philippe Fabry then took part in the filming of a documentary presented as part of Connaissance du Monde ‘Indus, from Tibet to the Indian Ocean’, under the direction of Patrick Moreau. He also did the photography for ‘Les derniers seigneurs de l’Indus’ in 1990, a project that required covering thousands of kilometres around Pakistan, Central Asia and Tibet.
The following year Philippe Fabry published another photographic work: ‘Balouchistan, le désert insoumis’. He then spent several years aboard his sailboat Le Dragon de Maud with his family, sailing the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and finally in the waters around Singapore ,. In 1995 he published his third photographic book in English: ‘Wandering with the Indus. Then, for more than a decade he concentrated his photographic work on Sri Lanka where he created a publishing house in 2001 to "build bridges between cultures" ,. He created a French bookshop in Colombo and was a consultant for the Photo Archives Department, Central Cultural Fund, Sri Lanka.
At the end of 2004, following the tsunami that ravaged the coasts of Sri Lanka, he created an NGO "Sri Lanka Solidarity" (SLS), to aid the victims of the tsunami and help in the reconstruction of the country ,,.
The construction of the village Istouti began in March 2005 and it was inaugurated in October 2009. SLS continued its development until May 2011 and built, with the help of many partners (including Fondation de France, Radio France - France Culture, and many others): 127 houses, 5 residential businesses, 6 shops, a covered market, a cultural centre, a nursery school, a sports field, an ambalama (kiosk), etc..
On December 26 2008, four years after the tsunami, Alexandre Héraud devoted an hour to SLS and its founder in the France Cultural programme called ‘Sur les docks’.
Two shipyards were also created by SLS in the weeks following the tsunami. The first In Beliatta (on the South Coast of Sri Lanka) and the second in Ondachchimadam (on the East Coast) where 53 Oru (traditional boats), 47 FRP and 9 large tonnage boats were built, fully equipped with engines and fishing gear. The principal partner in this project was the association Réunir chaired by Bernard Kouchner, which included funding from the DIPT (French government).
Finally, SLS published and distributed 50,000 copies of each issue of Yuti free of charge, a trilingual magazine written in English, Singhalese and Tamil. The magazine was both educational and entertaining and was intended for children aged between 8 and 14, victims of the tsunami and/or the war.
These achievements were later the subject of a reference work published under the aegis of the Fondation de France: 'Naissance d’un village - une reconstruction post-tsunami à Sri Lanka'.
On the 5th of September 2009, Philippe Fabry's work with Sri Lanka Solidarity was praised during a session in the Senate on the occasion of the 3rd annual celebration of the 'Français de l'étranger' (French living abroad), on TV Public Sénat [archive].
In April 2010, Philippe Fabry became one of the nine founding members of the Alliance française de Kotte, Colombo.
In 2012 he became a member of the Assemblée des Français de l’étranger (AFE), and was granted responsibility of the constituency of New Delhi, which includes eight countries: Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Philippe Fabry is the father of three children and is married to Lisa, his Australian wife. They live together in Provence, in the south of France.
==Awards==
Knight of the Ordre national du mérite - Decree of November 15, 2004, Government Gazette of November 16.
== Publications ==
* Les derniers seigneurs de l’Indus, co-author Patrick Moreau, Éditions A. Barthélemy, Avignon, 1990
* Balouchistan, le désert insoumis, Nathan Image, Paris, 1991,.
* Wandering with the Indus, Ferozsons, Lahore, 1995
* “Voyage of the King’s Vessel the Breton" - Extracts related to the Sojourn in the Island of Ceylon with the Persian Fleet - 1672 ”, in Honoring Martin Quéré, Viator Publications, Negombo, 2002, p. 111-141 
* The Essential guide for Jaffna and its region, with Lisa Fabry-Bewley, Alexandra Fabry and Emmanuel Fabry, Viator Publications, Negombo, 2003.
* La relève de l’Escadre de Perse, Ginkgo editor, Montreuil, 2004.
* The Essential guide for Anuradhapura and its region, Viator Publications, Negombo.
* The Essential guide for Colombo and its region, Viator Publications, Negombo, 2011.
* Quelques notions sur l’Isle de Ceylan, Eudelin de Jonville, presentation M.-H. Estève & Philippe Fabry, Ginkgo Publisher, Paris, 2012.
* Quelques notions sur l’Isle de Ceylan / Some Notions about the Island of Ceylon, Eudelin de Jonville, presentation M.-H. Estève & Philippe Fabry, Viator Publications, Hambantota, 2012.
* The Essential guide for Jaffna and its region (rev. Edition), with Lisa Fabry-Bewley, Alexandra Fabry and Emmanuel Fabry, Viator Publications, Negombo, 2012.
* Naissance d’un village - une reconstruction post-tsunami à Sri Lanka, Ginkgo Publisher, Paris, 2013
== References ==
==External links==
* Philippe Fabry - Amazon.com
* Wandering with the Indus: Fabry, Philippe: Amazon.com: Books
* Wandering with the Indus - Philippe Fabry - Google Books
* PHILIPPE FABRY - AbeBooks
* Philippe Fabry Books | List of books by author Philippe Fabry
Category:1952 births
Category:French people
Category:Traveller
Category:French photographers
Category:Author
Category:Adventure
Category:Publishers