Professor Gerard Lenoir
President of L’ENVOL
Chief of Service, General Pediatrics, Necker Children’s Hospital.
LENVOL pour les enfants europeens has a threefold mission :
to break the isolation of very sick children in the course of their stay,
to released them from the confines of hospital or home,
to help them relax with others in total safety.
Every year we welcome nearly 600 children (more than 6,000 over twelve years) from France and all over Europe to the Chateau de Boulains in the heart of the Fontainebleau forest. Each session of twelve days serves 85 children, and is repeated during the Easter and summer vacation. There is always a discreet yet efficacious medical follow-up.
In this idyllic environment, we offer many specialized activities, from photo workshops to cinema to computer skills to initiation to the world of flight in a plane or in a balloon.
Our slogan: ’vacations that give wings to sick children’ reflects our objective of breaking the vicious circle of sickness with the help of medical and recreational professionals, 1/3 salaried, 2/3 volunteers.
These boys and girls, suffering from leukaemia, cancer, haemophilia, cystic fibrosis, sick cell anaemia, often separated for the first time from their families, become aware of their potential by living and playing together.
We reconcile these children with hope and joie de vivre, physical activity and social contacts in a joyful and open setting.
Our sizable budget, 3.2 million Euros for more than 6,000 vacation days offered each year, has combined public-private funding.
Instead of a conclusion, we would like you to listen to a song about L’ENVOL, written by Agnes, eleven years old:
"In twelve days of happiness, your heart will be warmed in a plane or a balloon, you will be proud of yourself, but you must leave with a thousand treasures in your head. Yet you can return, make again golden friendships."
Pr. Gerard Lenoir, President of L’ENVOL.
Version Française