“My name is Daniel Kolani, I am 23 years old and I am an apprentice upholsterer at the La Bonne Graine training center in Paris. I was born in Liek, near Dapaong, in northern Togo. I first left home when I was 13. My father died in an accident in 2011, so to help my mother, I worked in the gold mines in Ghana and then in Burkina Faso.
In 2016, I met Mohamed, a Burkinabé whose brother worked in Libya on construction sites. He offered me to go with him to earn money. We joined Niamey, in Niger, then Agadez, in a ghetto [a place where migrants are gathered while waiting to be able to continue their journey]. It was dry, we lacked drinking water.
“The pick-ups arrived after a week, at night. There were 39 of us in ours, sitting on cans of water. We spent nine days in the desert. At night it was cold, we dug in the sand to warm ourselves. We passed a van that had had an accident. The passengers had survived, but there was no more water to give them and no place to take them. They were begging us. These people we left behind, we knew they were going to die. It’s a horrible place, the desert. Everywhere, there are bodies in the sand, women, young people… On the last day, I had to drink my urine to survive because we had no more water.
“In Libya, I spent a month and a half in prison in Gatrone. I managed to escape from the trucks when they wanted to repatriate us. I spent another two weeks in a ghetto in Sebah, then in Tripoli. Mohamed and I found his brother Ali on the construction site of a Libyan’s house. We worked with him and after two and a half months, we had earned enough money to reimburse him for the price of the trip, which he had advanced to us.
Inflatable boat
“But the night we finished the job, thieves beat us up and took everything in the house. We were afraid of being accused of theft, we had to flee. An acquaintance of Ali, a policeman, took us to the coast. Armed men put an inflatable boat in front of us and then took the passengers on board: there were 91 of us. After two days, we were still at sea, lost, and the boat had run out of fuel. We were spotted by a helicopter, then picked up by a cargo boat. About ten minutes after the rescue, the rain and the wind picked up. We got really hot! We arrived in Lampedusa, Italy, on a Wednesday evening after four days at sea.
“That’s where I got separated from Mohamed. I never saw him again. I went through Sicily, then to a hotel in Milan. From there, I followed two Moroccans to Nice, by train and then on foot, to avoid checks. In Nice, I took a train to get away from the city as quickly as possible, where there are many controls. I arrived in Paris, Gare de Lyon, at night, in September 2016. I had to find a place to sleep. A Senegalese man gave me the address of a hostel at Porte de Clignancourt and two metro tickets.
“I was advised to go see the Red Cross in Couronnes. I was hosted for a week in a hotel, then I was on the street, I slept in the metro. Regularly, I returned to see them at Couronnes. One day at Parc de Belleville, just next door, I met someone who changed my life. Elizabeth, an American who lives in Paris, was playing with her daughter in the park. She sat down next to me on a bench and we chatted for a bit.
When she realized that I was alone, homeless, she invited me for a tea, she bought me a phone and a SIM card. I was able to call my mother for the first time in almost a year. Elizabeth and her family decided to host me during my formalities. Six years later, I still live with her.
“With the help of an association, I took the Casnav test [Academic Center for the education of newly arrived allophone students and children from itinerant families and travelers] three days before I turned 18! It allowed me to be educated at Léonard-de-Vinci high school [15th arrondissement]. At the start of the 2017 school year, I started a CAP in carpentry, which I obtained in 2019. At the same time, I went to the association Savoir poursuccess, which gives French lessons. I met lots of people there, friends, my life started to take on a positive energy.
Water pump
“During my CAP, I did an internship at the Opéra Bastille, in the production of sets. I discovered tapestry. When I saw that the CFA La Bonne Graine was preparing for this job, I went to the open house. I met an incredible teacher, who was very moved by my story and supported me a lot during my schooling. I will be graduating at the end of the school year!
“In December 2019, with my residence permit, I was able to go back to see my mother in Togo for the first time. These reunions were very moving. My return changed a lot of things for her, because being a single woman in Togo is complicated. My uncles wanted to remarry her, but also to marry my sister. I told them they would do what they wanted. My sister, Meri, continued her training as a seamstress and graduated. Today, she has her own business and hires apprentices.
“I wanted to improve the life of the village, which did not have drinking water. Children got up at 4:30 a.m. and walked seven kilometers to fetch water before going to school. My project was to finance a borehole to install a water pump. With a friend in France, we raised 6,000 euros thanks to an online kitty. When the people of the village knew what we were trying to do, they built the road that allowed the drilling truck to travel the distance that separated it from the main road. It was crazy ! The company came to drill in April 2022 and since then the village has had drinking water. It changed their life. My next goal would be to manage to create a school.
“With my mother, we often hear from each other. And in France, I am no longer alone thanks to Elizabeth, her family and my friends. But I’m still torn between the two countries. I love France, but I’m not comfortable as if I were at home. When I am in Togo, I try to tell young people not to leave. Some spend thousands on the road! If I had had this money in Togo, I would never have made the trip. We can create things on the spot, businesses which then take on young people to train them, like my sister does. »
