Just six months ago, Mamoudou Gassama was living in his home country of Mali, where he always dreamed of moving to Paris to create a better life for himself. Since then, not only has he made his dreams of moving to Paris come true, he’s also become a hero in his new city!

Mamoudou, 22, moved to Paris as an undocumented immigrant in the hopes of finding a better life. One Saturday, he was walking home from the Gare du Nord railway station when he spotted a crowd of panicked people gathered at the bottom of a building.

When Mamoudou looked up to see what they were staring at, he saw there was a young boy dangling from a balcony four stories up the building. Without hesitating, Mamoudou started scaling the building, putting his life in danger to save the child.

“I did not think of the floors, I did not think of the risk, I did it because it’s a child. I really like children,” he later recounted.

After video of Mamoudou’s epic rescue went viral, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took to Twitter to praise him, writing, “Congratulations to Mamoudou Gassama for his brave act that helped save a child’s life last night. I had the pleasure to talk with him today by phone, to thank him warmly. His heroic gesture is an example for all citizens and that the City of Paris will obviously be keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France.”

Mamoudou even got to meet Emmanuel Macron, the president of France!

Macron was touched when he heard about how Mamoudou had always dreamed of moving to France, so he decided to take this one step further and award him citizenship!

Now, Mamoudou is a French citizen who is an inspiration to not only the people of France, but also to people all over the world! Check out his amazing rescue in the video below, and SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!