In 1997, I decided to quit my job, my apartment… everything. Why? To travel! To discover and witness the world. Meeting people, speaking with them. In three words: experience another life. It may be a utopian idea, but it is a liberating feeling. So, for four years, I travelled through India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, the Caribbean and, especially, Africa.
But, as all good things must come to an end, I had to store my travelling boots for lack of money... always the money.
So, I came back to Europe in 2001 and I was lucky: straight away, I started to work as a freelance journalist for a newspaper in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. It was not so far from home – I am Belgian, now a fifty-year young man – and I decided to rest my backpacker's soul in this very little, but nice country and I’m still there.
In fact, I was so good in my job (yes, yes, it’s not a joke) that the chief editor asked me to sign a contract and, since 2002, I am a full-time (read: at least twelve hours per day) journalist for La Voix du Luxembourg, a French language newspaper. At the moment, I’m in charge of “Economy and Finance” because of my experience (I studied law in Belgium and worked a while in a bank and in insurance and all the while working for free for local radios).
The big deal when you are a journalist is that you travel quite a lot. So, to make reports from the field, I have been in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and, once again, in Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville).
And I can tell you: I love Africa. The love story started in 1970 (yes, 1970) when I discovered the continent during a three-month stay in the Democratic Republic of Congo (at this time it was Zaire).
In Luxembourg, I met some people from an NGO, SOS Faim, which works in ten African countries. They (we) do a very good job, especially in microfinance. I say “we” because for two years now, I am part of the NGO and have really gotten involved in humanitarian aid. So much so that now I’m an administrator of the NGO and spend lot of time trying to be helpful to the African people who need us.
So it’s a long way to explain that I met Terry five years ago and we discovered that we feel many of the same things, especially concerning the relationships between North and South and the help we can bring. It takes time but now it’s on the way: Pix-Aid is a innovative project and we are confident it can work and be helpful. So join us and do it together.
One last word about language: I am a native French speaker so, as you can imagine, I feel more confident and am much more fluent, when I write or speak in French. How lucky we are: Terry is an English native, but his French is perfect. So, feel comfortable to contact us in both two languages and don’t be surprised if I write my blog in the way I know better.
I was always interested in humanitarian aid and development. I got my Master's degree in developmental economics and began my journalistic career covering the former Soviet Union and the fall of communism. After a few years of covering developmental projects for the United Nations and the European Union, I began working for individual NGOs to highlight their efforts and to bring to the public's attention some of the more pressing problems facing the developing world.
I was born and brought up in Africa, residing in various parts of the continent. I became a reporter / cameraman in order to combine two of my passions: photography and travel. Having been in most African countries through the years, I witnessed and experienced its joys and pains.