“Burns and a smile”.
A year after trying to set himself on fire in front of the CROUS headquarters in Lyon to denounce the precariousness of students, Anas Kournif has not given up on activism.
“#Tantquyadelalutteyadelespoir”, “#Solidaires”, “#CGT”… Committed hashtags accompany the text he posted on Facebook this Sunday.
His first official speech since November 8, 2019 and his desperate act.
The young man celebrated his 23 years at the end of August, from a rehabilitation center that he still has not left.
Between his physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychomotricity sessions, he took a little time to give his news and thanked “all the people who took action” this past year.
"Finger amputations"
“I have third degree burns on 75% of my body, with amputations on my fingers.
I spent five months in a coma in the burns department of the Edouard-Herriot hospital, where I underwent 48 operations, initially with an estimate of my chances of survival of 24 hours, ”says the native student. of Saint-Etienne.
If he still suffers today from "open wounds and begins new operations", Anas Kournif is progressing day by day.
"I am gaining in autonomy […], I have been speaking again since May, I walk very well and I manage to write texts correctly despite my amputations", he underlines.
"This will at least have allowed some progress"
Before taking action on November 8, 2019, the Lyon-2 student had justified himself on social networks, evoking his financial difficulties and denouncing the precariousness in which many of his comrades are plunged.
“I am aware of the gravity of my desperate act.
I was going through a difficult period without a stable job, without student accommodation and without a university grant, ”he explains a year later.
"I wake up by noting that this will have at least allowed some progress", he continues, quoting "the meals of the Restau U at 1 euro", "even if they are addressed only to scholarship holders."
The week following the tragedy, students had indeed mobilized in many universities to demand an improvement in the condition of the most deprived.
"I want to tell all the people who read me to fight for their rights because it is not in passivity that we manage to defend, and even less to win, good living conditions", urges the young man , which calls for awareness "that it is alive that we can improve our daily lives [...] without losing hope in life, in the progress of science and in collective action".
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He resumed his studies at a distance, "as well as activities related to student unionism".