• Jean Vanier, 86, founded revolutionary care community L’Arche in 1964
  • He was horrified after visiting a centre for people with learning disabilities
  • Fifty years later he has won a humanitarian award for his incredible work 
By Rosa Monckton For The Daily Mail
Published: 00:13 GMT, 21 May 2015 | Updated: 07:12 GMT, 21 May 2015

Fifty years ago Jean Vanier, an ex-Royal Navy midshipman, walked into a grim institution for people with learning disabilities.
Aged 36 and born into a life of privilege he was fearful of coming face-to-face with intellectually disabled people. He didn’t know how he would react to them, whether he would even understand them.
Once inside, he was reminded of a horrifying spectacle he had witnessed with his mother — a Red Cross worker in Paris after World War II — of ‘hundreds of men and women, like skeletons’ who had just returned from Nazi concentration camps.

The former prisoners were being treated as outcasts, just like the poor souls Vanier was visiting in northern France.
Vanier felt he wanted to talk to them, but failed to summon up the courage and turned away. But as he was leaving, he heard one shout: ‘Will you be my friend?’
It was a cry that pierced his heart — and would change his life. In that moment Jean Vanier felt the pain and loneliness of people who, through no fault of their own, have been rejected and stigmatised by society.
He invited two men from the mental institution to live with him at his home in a village north of Paris. It would be difficult. There was no electricity, no running water, and Vanier would have to adapt his lifestyle to accommodate them.
Rosa Monckton (left) with L’Arche resident Pauline Rchilly (right) at L’Arche in northern France
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Rosa Monckton (left) with L’Arche resident Pauline Rchilly (right) at L’Arche in northern France

But this was the beginning of L’Arche, the international organisation he founded, named after Noah’s Ark and to which he has devoted his life.

L’Arche, which has communities across Britain from Lambeth to Liverpool, cares for the mentally disabled. But unlike all previous institutions before it, carers live, eat and sleep alongside their charges. They are not considered staff — here today, gone tomorrow — but members of one family.
As Vanier says: ‘When you share the same bathroom, and your toothbrush shares the same mug, it is different.’
Ex-Royal Navy midshipman Jean Vanier, pictured here in uniform, named his organisation after Noah’s Ark

Ex-Royal Navy midshipman Jean Vanier, pictured here in uniform, named his organisation after Noah’s Ark
Jean Vanier, now 86, pictured here in 1975 with a young member of the L’Arche community. he said moving people out of residential care homes and into the community was ‘catastrophic’, and added to a pervading culture of loneliness’.

Jean Vanier, now 86, pictured here in 1975 with a young member of the L’Arche community

It was to the house, in Trosly-Breuil where L’Arche began, that I went to see Vanier. From those two young men who came to live with him, there are now 147 thriving L’Arche communities in 35 countries, following Vanier’s revolutionary template.
In recognition of this extraordinary achievement, Vanier was awarded the Templeton Prize for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities — on Monday in London.
Worth £1.1 million to its recipient, it has previously been presented to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa.


In recognition of his extraordinary achievement, Vanier was this week awarded the Templeton Prize progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities

Vanier is going to use the money to support his communities.
The key word is community. Not ‘out in the community’ which is where so many people with learning disabilities in the UK are dumped, and where they become lonely, isolated and vulnerable.
L’Arche residents live alongside their able-bodied peers. Meals are eaten around the same table, and there is time to discover the importance of being part of an extended family. There is also time to learn — for carers and those with disabilities alike — what it is to share a common humanity.
 
 
Vanier is going to use his £1.1 million award money to further support residents of his L’Arche communities
The house, in Trosly-Breuil, northern France, where L’Arche first began as a small idea some  fifty years ago
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The house, in Trosly-Breuil, northern France, where L’Arche first began as a small idea some  fifty years ago

Jean is a striking man: tall and white haired, with a ready smile. He asked about my daughter Domenica, who has Down’s Syndrome, and was genuinely delighted to learn she has a job on Mondays in a Brighton pub.
Until she was born, I never truly understood how society mistreats those who don’t conform to what we call ‘normal’.
Domenica inspired me to make three BBC documentaries, during which I was shocked by the way modern Britain so often leaves people with learning difficulties and their families to cope alone.
Jean Vanier, pictured here with Mother Theresa, was this week awarded the same humanitarian award previously bestowed on the nun herself, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama
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Jean Vanier, pictured here with Mother Theresa, was this week awarded the same humanitarian award previously bestowed on the nun herself, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama

Jean Vanier agreed — he said moving people out of residential care homes and into the community was ‘catastrophic’, and added to a pervading culture of loneliness’.
Asked what we could do to change things, he said part of the solution was teaching pupils about disability in schools.
‘Children should visit people in old peoples’ homes, they should meet people with disabilities,’ he said. ‘They need to be taught how to relate to people who are different.
It is extraordinary that while L’Arche is recognised through the Templeton Prize as a model of excellence, in Britain care is heading in the opposite direction

It is extraordinary that while L’Arche is recognised through the Templeton Prize as a model of excellence, in Britain care is heading in the opposite direction

‘In the UK many people with learning disabilities have no one in their life except those paid to support them, therefore ignoring the most important need of all . . . the need to belong to a community.’
It is extraordinary that while L’Arche is recognised through the Templeton Prize as a model of excellence, in Britain care is heading in the opposite direction.
Much of this is down to political correctness — the ill-informed dogma that everyone has a ‘human right’ to live alone and to make their own life-changing decisions.
Left to right: Clemence Montoya, Noemie Buyse and Pauline Rchilly at the L'Arche cardboard box factory
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Left to right: Clemence Montoya, Noemie Buyse and Pauline Rchilly at the L'Arche cardboard box factory

In France, anyone between the ages of 16 and 25 can volunteer for community service for up to a year, and receive a modest government stipend. Jean Vanier would like to see a similar scheme here in the UK
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In France, anyone between the ages of 16 and 25 can volunteer for community service for up to a year, and receive a modest government stipend. Jean Vanier would like to see a similar scheme here in the UK

Steve Noone, a consultant clinical psychologist, who was an assistant in the Liverpool L’Arche community, hopes Vanier’s Templeton Prize win will help change attitudes.
He told me the only reason he is a psychologist today is because of his profound experiences with L’Arche, where he lived ‘heart to heart’ alongside people with learning disabilities. All L’Arche communities have assistants, who generally volunteer for a year.
L’Arche communities are essentially Christian, but are open to people of all faiths, and for those with none
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L’Arche communities are essentially Christian, but are open to people of all faiths, and for those with none

In France, anyone between the ages of 16 and 25 can volunteer for community service for up to a year, and receive a modest government stipend. L’Arche have 300 on this programme, and Jean Vanier would like to see a similar scheme here.
L’Arche communities are Christian but are open to people of all faiths, and for those with none.
Jean has an affection for the UK. He served on HMS Vanguard, which travelled to South Africa in 1947 with King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and the two young Princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret on board.
He recalls Princess Elizabeth’s 21st birthday party in Durban, when he was chosen to dance with ‘poor’ Princess Margaret. He explains: ‘Poor, as I was such a bad dancer, and she was so much better.’
Jean Vanier, pictured here with Rosa Monckton, agrees that moving people with disabilities out of residential care homes and into the community was ‘catastrophic’, and added to a pervading culture of loneliness
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Jean Vanier, pictured here with Rosa Monckton, agrees that moving people with disabilities out of residential care homes and into the community was ‘catastrophic’, and added to a pervading culture of loneliness

There are 11 L’Arche communities in Britain. I visited one in Lambeth, South London, where 100 people live, 37 of them with a wide range of learning disabilities.
Some live in supported housing, some require nursing care, and others simply use the day services.
One of the many extraordinary things about the L’Arche is the high number of long-serving staff members. Some have been with it for more than 30 years. It is this continuity of service that makes the houses feel like family homes.
Lambeth staff member Louise has been there 26 years. Two residents have clocked up 37 years, and five 20 years. Contrast this with the story in the newspapers two weeks ago of a university professor who was concerned about the care his father, who has dementia, was receiving.
L’Arche residents are encouraged to go out into the wider world, but the belief at the core of the organisation is that its residents fare better when living as part of a supportive community
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L’Arche residents are encouraged to go out into the wider world, but the belief at the core of the organisation is that its residents fare better when living as part of a supportive community

He installed a hidden camera, and saw there were 57 different people going in and out over six months, several of them only staying for five minutes of their half-hour slot.
L’Arche residents are encouraged to go out into the wider world. Aedan MacGreevy, who used to work at Goldman Sachs, and now volunteers two days a week at L’Arche in Lambeth, told me one of the residents likes to walk in the West Norwood crematorium grounds with his L’Arche assistant.
One day he got into conversation with a grave digger, and told him about his favourite television show. He invited the man to his birthday party later in the week. Not only did the grave digger turn up, but he gave him a box set of the show as a present.
There are now 147 thriving L’Arche communities in 35 countries, following Vanier’s revolutionary template

There are now 147 thriving L’Arche communities in 35 countries, following Vanier’s revolutionary template

Another volunteer, Chris Glasson, who used to work at BAE Systems, has befriended Terry, who is severely autistic. Chris states simply that ‘it is a privilege to be with him’.
Aedan told how, when a resident dies, the funeral brings the whole community together. If people go into hospital, there is always someone from L’Arche to stay with them. A social worker, seeing the support given to one resident at the end, said: ‘I would like to die at L’Arche’.
Witnessing the care and commitment and compassion at L’Arche, in Manchester, Lambeth and Trosly-Breuil has been wonderful. But the real privilege has been meeting the people who are cared for, who have found in L’Arche what it means to have a family, a safe haven and a real home.

And it all started when Jean Vanier — with his most generous heart —heard that desperate cry: ‘Will you be my friend?’