I met Ali at a public-spirited cafe in Paris.
« As we’re talking about the refugees crisis maybe you’d like to hear my story? My name is Ali, I’m 17 years old and I’m a migrant from Mali. “
Ali had a dream. From a young age he wanted to become an engineer and has done everything he could for his dream to come true: from moving alone to another town to go to highschool, to working part time to ensure his own living expenses.
When he lost his father , Ali decided to leave. He didn’t know where and how but he knew he had a brighter future and a dream he desperately wanted to achieve.
From there his long journey began, getting through : racketeerings, beatings, hunger , thirst and the loneliness of leaving the ones he loved.
“There were two times I really thought I was going to die though. The first time was in the desert.
We rode a car from Niger to Lybia and had to cross the whole desert with 25 other people . During our trip, the driver stopped near a small village during mid day, and asked us to wait for him under a small tree.
We thought he was coming back in the next hour… he left us 3 days.
We had nearly nothing with us, but we were saved by a kind lady who was living in the nearby village and knew the driver habits. Everyday she came and offered food and water.
Although we were feeling very cold at night and thought the sun would burn us down during the day, we hung on thanks to this woman kindness.
When the driver came back to get us we all went to thank her, and she blessed us for the rest of our travel.
There were other days when we thought we were gonna end like the ones we saw on photographs: laying dead on the sand or drowning in the sea, but her blessings seemed to have protected us.«
Ali told us the rest of his story of how he struggled to get to Lybia, how he lost sight of his travel companion, Abu Bakhr, when Lybian kids ganged up on them during their stay there and finally described the living hell they lived crossing the sea to Europe.
» Right when i thought death wouldn’t spare me twice.. a big boat came to our rescue. I couldn’t believe it. I started to cry for the first time of this whole adventure: I didn’t want to die, nobody wanted to die there.”
Ali reached Europe and was warmly welcomed in Italia, then decided to make it to France to resume his studies, as he speaks french.
Although he experienced very difficult conditions in the beginning, sleeping on the streets of Paris with no belongings, he‘s now on his way back to school.
“ I don’t know what’s waiting for me, but I have a dream and I’ll make it come true!” – he ended with a bright smile.
Ali never complained about his situation. He considers himself extremely lucky to be alive, having met such big hearted and openminded people who chose Humans Over Borders. #HOB
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