Strasbourg, France

Photographer: Anne Milloux

Year of Submission: 2016 (Educators Edition) 

In the last twelve years, more than 8,000 children have sung with Alfonso Nsangu-Cornu’s Gospel Kids Choir at concerts across France. Alfonso arrived in France in 1989 at the age of six, fleeing war in his home country, Angola. He first experienced gospel music as a teenager when he joined a choir in Strasbourg. Aer leaving school, he had a brief career as a mechanic before switching to become a full-time youth worker. In 2003, he combined his love of working with children with his passion for music in a series of extracurricular singing classes held at a local school. Their success paved the way for Alfonso to set up Gospel Kids Choir the following year. Since then, Alfonso has brought together children from different neighbourhoods, social backgrounds and cultures to sing gospel, African and French songs at a total of nearly 500 concerts.