Do you remember the story of the Malian Spiderman who scaled up four floors to save a 4-year-old in Paris?
This summer, Italy got its own #RefugeeHero, too: Osahon Ewansiha, a new arrival in Italy from Nigeria, went viral after stopping a supermarket robbery.
Check out the video that made him famous:
After arriving in Turin a few months ago, Osahon started begging outside the Prestofresco. He was there on June 30 when an armed robber broke into the store.
Osahon didn’t think twice about stopping the robbery and protecting a cashier who had been hit by the robber.
“I just did what’s normal. This woman needed assistance, so I assisted her,” he said.
New job
Impressed by his bold gesture and Osahon's honesty, Domenica Lauro, the owner of the supermarket, decided to reward him with an opportunity: a 3-year paid apprenticeship.
“He has such an extraordinary enthusiasm toward life. That's what got me,” she said in a video for FanPage.it.
On July 25, 2018, Osahon had his first day of work at Prestofresco. He is now the only Nigerian employee among 70 Italians.
“My future starts today," Osahon said, proud of wearing the red T-shirt with the supermarket logo on it.
“I didn’t think my gesture, that Saturday morning, would have gotten me here. It’s changed my life,” he said, thrilled about his first real job opportunity in Italy.
Now that he has a job, Osahon is working hard to improve his Italian. He is also dreaming of his own apartment and maybe, in few years, a family: “When you have no job you think like a jobless man. But when you get a job, you think like somebody who has a dream," he said.
Like many others, Osahon reportedly crossed the Mediterranean and arrived in Italy in 2015. After receiving a permesso di soggiorno on humanitarian grounds in Cosenza, Osahon moved to Turin in search of a new future — which he found, albeit in an unusual way!
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