My name is David Lallemand. I am 41 and have been working as a journalist with the RTBF for nearly 20 years. I have chosen the RTBF because I do believe in a public information service that can educate people to the media and span bridges between generations, cultures, human race borders.

Thanks to my career on radio and television I have met thousands of people : state leaders, cinema and theatre stars, singers, ministers, managers ... but also a lot of anonymous people with no title nor rank that have impressed me most.

Those anonymous people have helped me understand the real goal of my job : to give voice to show the richness and generosity of those people working behind the scenes to get involved with the others. Today, thanks again to my profession, I have met the Pinocchio Association for the benefit of burned children.

The youths are our hope ; yet when burns enter their lives, it is as if their hope evaportes.

Nevertheless, splendid and dedicated men and women work daily to beat pain, scars (physical and moral), injustice and despair in order to reinstall self-confidence and build a new life for these little victims confronted to the worst of ordeals : to become someone with his/her difference.

That work must be valued and appreciated because we all are potential burned patients. I consider it an honour and a priviledge to have been offered to be the ambassador for the Pinocchio Association. As such one enlarges his family. I am very happy to be a part of it, together with you.

Pinocchio reminds me of the story my grandmother told me. Her grandmother was a washerwoman at the beginning of the last century. She had a gift to heal burns with rasped potato and selected plants which she mixed carefully. At that time, women wore long robes and a collection of petticoats.

My ancestor was not rich and her talent did not pay much. They used gas-lamps to light the rooms. One day, the gas-lamp broke at her feet and she took fire like a human torch. Before she died, she gave my grandmother a pair of earrings which she never left. I treasure them today.

Eventually, we were meant to meet !

David Lallemand