Third World Child AMA with translator via satellite

What do you dream of becoming when you grow up?

I am in the first grade, but when I grow up, I want to be a teacher.

Are you happy?

I don't know. I think a doll would make me happy.

What do you guys do for fun?

We don't have time for a lot fun, we have to take care of our younger brothers and sisters.

But once in a while, I go outside, in front of my house, and sing and dance with my friends.

I live in Malawi... and having worked with many 3rd world children... I can't help but feel these answers are made up by someone wanting the kid to sound helpless and sad.

Even starving kids here say their favorite game is football... or for the girls it's jump rope... or playing with tires... or something. Never have I heard a child be asked what they like to do for fun and they say "We don't have time for fun."

Taking care of younger brothers and sisters? If they are babies they are being breast fed and strapped to the back of the moms. If they are toddlers they are off walking around while the other kids play.

But once in a while, I go outside, in front of my house, and sing and dance with my friends.

Again... what? the kids are never inside! They are always outside! Playing!

Edit: Here is a photo album from last Friday. This is Mfura village. SaveTheChildren was asked to help and they agreed. What did they do? They spent a couple hours telling the moms how to better care for their children and then left. The kids were severely protein deficient. My Husband and I donated enough food to last the kids until February which was only $800. Note the kids are still running around and playing despite being poor and hungry because that is all they know.

Edit2: Did they just pull the AMA? If this really was sponsored by Save The Children... that was a super douche move on their part

Not sponsored by Save at all, 100% our (Athene and myself) initiative to come visit and we came up with the idea to do this AMA today and had the Save The Children people help us for translation and using the satellite uplink.

Hi there! Thanks for doing this :)

What is your favorite memory so far? What is the happiest you have ever been, and what were you doing?

my happiest memory is when I met my best friend.

How do you see the western world?

I don't know the Western world.

Favourite sport or game to play??

My favorite game is "maclo" which is when we jump around and sing.

How is the living conditions there with water/housing etc

We get the water from the well that we have to walk a long way to. My grandmother, dad, mom, 3 older brothers, 3 younger sisters and myself all live in 2 rooms.

What is your average day like?

I wake up and do the house chores all day and help my mom. Sometimes I go to school.

A word of caution on Save The Children. A while ago I set up a recurring monthly donation to their organization. A few months later I decided to cancel, and I remember the website had no option to do that and tells you to contact the webmaster if wanting to cancel. So I did that and I got a reply back saying it was cancelled. Then I noticed my card is still being charged, so I contacted the webmaster again who reassured me this time the recurring donation has been really cancelled.

Except it wasn't, and I was still being charged for the next few months until I actually cancelled my credit card. When contacting their webmaster again with a more serious tone, I got no replies.

Just wanted to share my experience with them and warn to proceed with caution when dealing with Save The Children.

Quick reply here from reese015 (not the child): that sounds terrible and I will notify their social media director about it asap. For context though, Save The Children fares dramatically better than most other respected and well-known charities if you look em up on sites like Charity Navigator etc. This is the main reason why Athene and I chose to work with them and visit them in Mali (btw we are not employed or 'sponsored' in any way by them, flight tickets etc are paid by us personally).

Have you ever seen a movie/videogame?

I like karate movies and cartoons. There is someone in our village with a tv and we all go watch there.

What do you think the world outside your village looks like?

I like my village more than anywhere else, I used to go to Bamako but I would cry all the time and wanted to go back home. I do not know what the rest of the world looks like because I have never been there.

What was it like to see a computer for the first time?

I really don't know how to use a computer but I saw it the first time at my sister's house who lives in Bamako.

Where do you sleep? :)

Also, what do you think about being asked all these questions?

I appreciate and like that you are asking all these questions.