-From 1970, France: Patrick Edel takes over the Guild and organizes car rallies to Kabul in 1972, Dakar in 1974, Rio de Janeiro in 1976 and Kathmandu in 1977. Philippe de Dieuleveult, a member of his staff, drives a truck up to the Christian sector in Lebanon during the civil war, and reaches fame as the master of ceremony of a TV show, before vanishing into the Zaire River in 1985 (most probably killed by Mobutu Sese Seko’s security forces). The Guild wants adventure to be useful and to contribute to development. Based upon its previous experiments in Asia, it gets heavily involved in Afghanistan.

-From 1980, Afghanistan: through its Department for action and development, the Guild charters several caravans towards regions controlled by the resistance against the Soviet occupation. Freight from Pakistan is so expensive that the organization decides to directly deliver cash money to the hungry population. In the villages, Elders Committees select the beneficiaries and occasionally ask for weapons rather than food, like in the Kunar area in 1984. Sharing this fighting spirit, some Guild members contemplate to join the armed struggle. In his book published in 2003, journalist Olivier Weber quotes one of them, Alain Boinet: “I must admit, I wondered if I should fight on their side. I supply them with humanitarian aid, but their final aim is freedom. Consequently, if they are defeated they will lose their freedom. And if this happens, will we still be able to help them? If their country falls under the control of the Soviet Union, we shall never be able to come back again. We had to restrict ourselves, since this plan to join them in their fight carried some awkward aspects: we’d fight on their side but what would we bring them? Did they need us? They could get all the fighters they wanted”. At one stage, Laurent Maréchaux, another volunteer from the Guild, joined Armin Wardak forces during an attack against the city of Ghazni in 1981. A documentary movie directed by Christophe de Ponfilly, produced by “Interscoop” and broadcast by “France 2” TV channel features Laurent Maréchaux who comments: “Each of us was a political militant and we were all dreaming to go to war. Humanitarian aid was our cover”. In Afghanistan, a country with little resources, relief has a political value anyway, because of its economic input. In 1986, for instance, Thierry Niquet, a volunteer for the Guild and AFRANE, is killed as he was leaving Kundunz, a Hezb Islami’s fundamentalist stronghold, to reach Mazar-i-Sharif, which was controlled by a rival party, Jamiat Islami. Thierry Niquet has been most likely the victim of a murder committed by Zabet Toufân, a commander of the Hezb Islami. Indeed, the Guild had negotiated its assistance with the Hezb Islami, which accused the organization of favouring other areas. The distribution of food often generates conflicts. In the following years, the Guild is also suspected to supply weapons to Ahmed Shah Massoud’s guerrillas in the Panchir valley.

-From 1983, France: while its public utility status is recognised by a decree in December 1981, the Guild organizes a forum in Agen and delivers an award to Handicap International. This forum will gather on a yearly basis.

-1988-1998, Lebanon: the Guild helps the Christian side, and once peace is concluded, expands all around the country, where it develops agricultural programs.

-Since 1993, Cambodia, Vietnam: the Guild builds up a training centre in Cambodia and runs a French language educational program in Vietnam.

1) The mission
-One of the Guild’s main task is to encourage discovering the world and to deliver travelling scholarships. Humanitarian actions are split into three categories: a support to personal initiatives with an agency created in 2001 and geared for mini projects; long term missions; a co-ordination effort with other NGOs, in particular with the "North-South Solidarity Yearly Forum" in Agen. The Guild takes responsibility for its long term mission but does not follow up the mini projects, which are run by their initiators. Short term missions provide young people with the opportunity to travel.

2) The financial resources
-Unlike a great deal of French international NGOs, the Guild depends little on institutional financial backers. Its resources are provided by various French local governments or companies, including oil trusts: Elf with scholarships from 1980 to 1995, Shell with the creation of a web site on the Internet between year 2000 and 2003. In its quarterly magazine Aventure, the Guild also accepted a full-page advertisement from Dassault, an arms factory. The organization does not disclose any financial report on the Internet.

3) The links with politics
-The political past of several members of the Guild explains its "right wing" reputation. Patrick Edel belonged to the OAS (Organisation of the Secret Army) and was previously taken to jail due to his opposition to the independence of Algeria in 1962. Among other volunteers were nationalistic militants such as Laurent Maréchaux and Alain Boinet both paratrooper officers coming from the Youth Action Group which, back in the 1970s, had attacked some American companies established in France, and made common cause with the Christian militias in Lebanon (Laurent Maréchaux was sentenced several months in jail when he opposed his taken into custody at the Aeroflot office in Paris on 14th February 1977; Alain Boinet launched the Solidarités NGO in 1991). A military training, an anti communist stand or an ideological support to the Christian “freedom fighters” in Lebanon led some of the Guild’s volunteers to step forward and participate to armed struggles, especially in Afghanistan where Patrice Franceschi escorted caravans to the Mujahidin and later on participated in the launching of Solidarités. Yet, according to Patrick Edel, the head office in Paris did know nothing about these personal initiatives which neither affected the organization, nor reflected its various members’ diversity of political opinions. A permanent member and several times chairman of the Guild, Christian Des Pallières stood at local elections on the Socialist Party roll.

Aid watch would like to thank the Guild for its co-operation. The history part of this description was reviewed after an interview on 24th March 2003 with Mr. Patrick Edel, General Delegate of the organization.