Step Up

In 2013, Mr Mamoudou Gassama set off from his home town of Yaguine in south-western Mali to tackle the treacherous Africa to Europe migrant route across the Sahara desert through Burkina Faso, Niger and Libya, before crossing the Mediterranean to Italy and settling in Paris.  Today, Mr Gassama lives illegally in France, works cash-in hand jobs on building sites, shares a room with relatives in a hostel in the suburb of Montreuil and sleeps on a mattress on the floor.  Not anymore!  For after an audience with Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, Mr Gassama has been granted French residency as a first step towards gaining citizenship. What’s more he has also won an internship with the Paris fire service.  Why?  As a reward for scaling four floors of an apartment block in northern Paris to rescue a four year old boy who was dangling from a balcony.  The boy, who had been left alone, had fallen from his father’s sixth floor apartment but miraculously had managed to grab hold of a balcony two floors down.  Enter Mr Gassama.  The 22 year old raced up to the fourth floor balcony where he remained with the boy until firefighters climbed over a neighbouring balcony to reach the pair.  Apart from minor injuries, the boy emerged from his ordeal unscathed and is being looked after by the French authorities.  Speaking to French TV station RMC, the boy’s mightily relieved grandmother said “My God, I was very shocked… Thankfully he [Mr Gassama] knew how to climb, because there were a lot of people below but he didn’t just fold his arms. He raced up to the fourth floor. That was truly incredible. He was very brave.”  The French President clearly agrees after he awarded Mr Gassama a medal for courage.  Bravo!