A Senegalese man arrives in a boat to the Canary Islands and ends up working as a caretaker in a parish in Barcelona: “I was at sea for three days”

Since making this vital decision at just 21 years old, Balang has completely changed his life. From wandering the streets of Barcelona, ​​the 34-year-old man has gone on to become a role model when it comes to serve homeless people. He does it in the parish of Santa Annalocated in the center of Barcelona, ​​where every morning he helps all the homeless who come to receive breakfast in the cloister of the Church.

This is what he himself said in Noon COPEwhere the young Senegalese has opened up about the long journey he had to make to reach the Spanish coasts and how he has found a place in the Catalan capital after disembarking in the archipelago.

From arriving in the Canary Islands by boat to helping migrants in a church in Barcelona

During his time on the radio, Dabo Balang told what it was like dangerous journey what he did to get to Spain from his country of origin, Senegal: «I decided to leave my town to find a life. I entered through Mauritania, arrived in Morocco and by boat I arrived to Tenerife. We spent three days at seain the boat. I arrived without family“I arrived alone,” said the young Senegalese.

Shortly after, the man would move to Barcelona: «I lived on the street and then they suggested that I go to the parish of Santa Anna to help with the work which is carried out together with the homeless. I thought I was a person like them and I went directly to help them. I found many sleeping in the church and then they hired me», he recalled about his time as a volunteer. Almost 15 years later, this has become the caretaker of the parish of Santa Anna.

In the congregation, located in the heart of the Catalan city, Dabo He deals daily with some foreigners who, like him, come to Spain in search of a decent future for themselves and their family: «This is not just a field hospital, it is a real hospital that heals the wounds of migrants. “Any migrant who arrives in Barcelona, ​​the first thing they do is ask for Santa Anna,” the guest told the COPE network.

A new project to help a school in Senegal

Since his arrival at the church, Dabo has not stopped dedicating himself body and soul to the people who pass by there every day in search of help. However, in recent months, its main objective has been very different: it has started a project to get enough computers to create a computer room in the school I attended as a childin Senegal.

«I thought that if all the young people left my country of origin and came here it would be another chaos, I returned to Senegal in May and visited my school. It was very bad and without computers. For now we have collected 30 computers, people keep calling me and bringing them home and then sending them to my town,” said the Senegalese.