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 Los Gorriones (The Sparrows) is first of all the story of a French-Belgian couple, Chantal and Gil van den Bergh. One day, they decided to leave their home in France to look for new horizons. Their respective professional backgrounds had already introduced them to other universes, she being a nurse, he an educator. Their deepest wish was to help others and share their knowledge and experience with people in other parts of the world. They wanted to do this by setting up a children’s home.
Their example was Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta. Apart from this, India had always attracted them so it was here that Gil and Chantal started their journey together with their son Aron, both carrying an imaginary rucksack stuffed with motivation, conviction and curiosity.
For various reasons, a children’s home in India turned out to be impossible. After two years, with the children’s home still being no more than a dream, someone in the NGO world mentioned Peru as a possibility. After some enquiries, Gil and Chantal sensed that it could work. They arrived in Peru in 2001 and went to Ayacucho, an Andean city located in the one of the poorest regions of the country. They immediately liked Ayacucho with its view of the surrounding mountains. The town’s recent past, marked by a bloody conflict between the national security forces and a terrorist organisation that badly affected the social fabric, meant that a children’s home would be warmly welcomed by the local population.
Peru did indeed work for Gil and Chantal: it took only nine months to open the children’s home Los Gorriones (The Sparrows) on 5 March 2002. Its name refers to the safe nest that Gil and Chantal wanted to create for their children. Its cornerstone is their belief that a child’s life can be changed with lots of love and attention.
Ayacucho changed the life of Gil and Chantal in many ways. Ruth Karina, one of the first physically and mentally disabled children they came across, is now their adopted daughter.
Chantal passed away on 10 April 2008 after a long illness. Gil now runs the home with a dedicated team. As he often says, it is with the help of many that Los Gorriones advances.
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