2022 IFI Annual Award For Pierre Pirad

With degrees in law (ULB – University of Brussels) and business management from Solvay Business School (Brussels), Pierre pursued a career in the private sector for more than 25 years, holding management positions in companies such as Procter & Gamble and Stanley Tools.

In 2009, Pierre chose to leave his comfort zone and move from a CEO position to one

As a secondary teacher in a vocational school in Molenbeek, Brussels where a majority of pupils came from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. During his years of teaching, Pierre had a vision for equality and fairness for the success of all students. Pursuing his vision, in 2013 Pierre launched “Teach for Belgium” as part of the “Teach for All network”.

Pierre is also involved in development projects in Senegal in the village of Palmarin. His projects include creating local jobs by opening a plastic collection center and building a laboratory for science in the local high school. Far from the tensions that we are confronted with in our country, in this village in Senegal, Christians and Muslims live in perfect harmony with ease.

This new reality became the starting point of a quest that would take Pierre across the different continents in search of inspiring stories of people who have dared to reach across religious barriers to help create a more peaceful world. His quest resulted in yet another twist in his professional life, by becoming the director and producer of a documentary project that’s aim was to share these stories with the world.

“To understand each other, we have to meet each other. Our documentary is a project that is part of this commitment. We want to make voices heard, other than those who badly express themselves in the media. We want to tell different stories, to encourage resolutely positive actions. In the end, we simply want to leave a better world to our children.” ~ Pierre Pirard

Pierre had a vision to reinvent a world where everyone has a place. He spoke with over 150 people all over the world looking for inspiring stories of women and men who decided to put being human beyond their own identity and place it at the center of their relationship to each other.

After traveling with his film crew to Bosnia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Senegal and the United States in 2019, he spent the first half of 2020 in post production deciding what to include and what to leave on the cutting room floor. Pierre’s 90 minute documentary is entitled: All of Us. This project was completely funded by private patrons and foundations, including the Royal Family of Belgium.

The plan was to release the film in September of 2020, but the pandemic halted those plans. Pierre had to reimagine how to get his film out into the world, so he came up with the idea to hold a world wide virtual watch party on May 16, 2022, the same day as the United Nations International Day of Living Together in Peace.

He spent the year of 2021 finding 413 partner organizations who would agree to promote and share the link to the film. None of these partner organizations were asked to contribute financially to this project. Pierre’s only goal was to have his film seen by as many people across the globe as possible. He wanted the message that peace is possible in our world to be heard across the continents. These organizations represent over 52 countries with 10 million people who had signed up to join the watch party! The film has been narrated in English, French and Arabic with versions that are subtitled in Dutch, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish. When asked why Pierre chose the title of his documentary, his response was to emphasize the humanity that resides in All of Us!