23 Mamady

Mamady. 18 years old. Malian | Mamady is completing a professional qualification in carpentry in Paris. “My aim is to be trained here...I would like to go back to my village to do carpentry. Because there, it’s ok if you can find money... Furniture sells well back home: I will make beds and garden benches. We put them outside when it’s sunny there. People go outside to talk.” Mamady lived with his “mom” in Mali. He crossed Algeria, Libya, and the Mediterranean to land in Italy in November 2014. “It was my mom who helped me find money to come: she baked cakes and sold them.” When he arrived in Paris, he was asked for his date of birth. “I had my passport and I showed it... The judge said I was a minor. I didn’t want to be a minor because I was afraid he would send me back to the village.” But Mamady was sent to Brittany. “We played football in the morning and evening, I had a lot of friends and I wanted to stay there.” Eventually, the young man who loved the Breton climate, the sea, and crêpes had to return to Paris to start his training. Mamady is now 18 years old and will soon be a qualified carpenter. In Mali, his mother died on November 17, 2016. | Les Grands Voisins, foyer de l’association Aurore, Paris, France 2019