Arnaud Gouillon

Arno Gouillon is the editor of the NGO's magazine which is published in France every three months in 13,000 copies. He is a regular interlocutor of the French media who want to write about the humanitarian situation in Kosovo and Metohija. Following the publication of an article 10 pages long in the prominent Figaro Magazine, in June 2019, he received, along with the deputy director of Le Figaro, threats and insults from Albanians and pro-Albanian French journalists.

He organized a 52-minute documentary about the life of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, aired four times on French television channel KTO and twice on the Serbian National Television channel RTS. The film entitled "Kosovo, Christianity at Risk" was awarded as the best performance at the Zaječar Documentary Spiritual Film Festival and at the 2018 International Orthodox Film Festival in Kruševac.

In addition to his humanitarian work, Arnaud Gouillon is very active in the social and cultural areas. In 2016, Arnaud Gouillon was invited to be one of the participants in the campaign "Let's cherish the Serbian language", sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, with the aim of cultivating and protecting the Serbian language, alphabet, general linguistic culture and literacy. Two years later, he became the trademark and the leader of the Speech Culture Caravan, which organizes trainings and panels for young people across Serbia and Republika Srpska.

Aware that in addition to the Kosovo issue, one of the biggest challenges for Serbia is the departure of young people abroad, Arnaud Gouillon founded the INOMS Association in Belgrade in 2016 (Initiative for Birthrate and Staying of the Young People in Serbia – in Serbian: Inicijativa za Natalitet i Ostanak Mladih u Srbiji). The aim of this association is to encourage young people to stay in Serbia through positive and successful examples from Serbia, as well as with the demystification of an idealized life abroad.

In 2015, he received the Serbian citizenship based on his merits in the field of humanitarian work and the passport of the Republic of Serbia was delivered to him at an official ceremony in the Palace of Serbia by the Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, Nebojša Stefanović.

Arnaud Gouillon is married to Ivana Gajić. His wife is of Serbian origin, born in France, with whom he has two daughters, Milena (2015) and Irena (2017). They met by chance in Zvornik, where Arnaud was working as an engineer while Ivana was visiting her relatives.

In 2012 he settled in Belgrade with his family. He is active in several cultural associations and regularly holds lectures and panels around Serbia and abroad.

Working with children and humanitarian projects for children are also one of the priorities of the NGO Solidarity for Kosovo. From 2012 to date, it has renovated 34 schools, took hundreds of children for the first time to the seaside, and helped operate two maternity wards, one hospital and four health centers.

He is a frequent guest of the different Institutes of Culture, Universities and Secondary Schools from Serbia and Republika Srpska, that invite him to talk about his experience in the field of humanitarian work and social involvement, but also on philosophical topics such as the symbol of life, humanism, justice ... From 2012 to the present, he has delivered over one hundred lectures and panels in the Serbian language.

Since 2011, he has been employed as the director of the charity NGO Solidarity for Kosovo, which he founded when he was a student and where he was volunteering during seven years.

When he was only 24 years old, in 2010, the ambitious young Arnaud Gouillon tried to get 500 signatures from mayors so he could run in the French presidential election two years later. In this challenge, he received the support of several movements, including the Bloc Identitaire movement, of which the young Arnaud Gouillon was a member, known for its commitment to a strong Europe and opposition to the illegal arrival of migrants in France. Following this experience, which ended in 2011, he left his political activities and devoted himself fully to his humanitarian and socially useful work.

Between 2007 and 2010 he worked as an engineer at L'Oréal in Paris, at the Chamber of Commerce in Bordeaux, as a professor of physics at a French school in Cairo and as a quality coordinator in Zvornik (Republika Srpska) for Studen-Prom, a company exporting frozen food products to France.

His humanitarian work began with the creation in 2004 of the charity NGO Solidarity for Kosovo, which was founded in response to the anti-Serb unrest that afflicted Kosovo and Metohija on March 17 and 18, 2004. He came to Serbia for the first time in 2005 with his brother Bertrand and two friends bringing the humanitarian aid gathered in France. Gouillon's brothers’ small student organization quickly grew into one of the largest charities operating in the Balkans.

Arnaud Gouillon became politically aware at the age of 13 when he publicly defended his political stance for the first time in history class, days after the bombing of the Serbian National Television building on April 23, 1999. His history professor at the time justified the crime by saying that "the Serbian Television has become a military target as it broadcasts propaganda", to which the young Arnaud Gouillon replied that "a media house, no matter how it works, must not become a military target and by killing civilians and innocent people, we do not do humanitarian work. The French media also spreads propaganda, but no one bombs them for that." Afterwards, the professor wanted to expel him from the class.

Arnaud Gouillon (November 27, 1985) is a French and Serbian humanitarian and the founder of Solidarité Kosovo, a French non-governmental humanitarian organization devoted to helping Serbian people in enclaves on Kosovo and Metohija.

Arnaud Gouillon (Grenoble, November 27, 1985) is a French and Serbian humanitarian, founder and director of the French NGO Solidarity for Kosovo (in French: Solidarité Kosovo) and author of the book "All My Roads lead to Serbia" (in Serbian: "Svi moji putevi vode ka Srbiji").