15 Years Old
Daniel
As part of our visits to DRC, we spoke to many children hoping to learn more about the lives of orphans in Kinshasa. We asked the usual questions about their favourite subjects, hobbies, and what they want to be when they grow up. The answers were typical of any child, ‘we love football,’ ‘We want to be doctors, ’ and ‘we like to play with our friends.’
We met Daniel Mkonagi. He is 15 years old and a perfect student at his school. He wants to be a lawyer when he grows up, and his main interest is football.
In our experience, it is sometimes tricky eliciting different responses when we ask children the typical questions; however, when we asked Daniel ‘why’ his answers had an eloquence, we couldn’t have scripted ourselves.
‘I want to be a lawyer because my older brother is a lawyer and my father wanted me to be one before he died.’
This wasn’t an off-the-cuff response.
‘I go to school from midday until 6pm.’ Surely you must enjoy your leisure time after school.
‘I have to do my chores when I get home; sweeping, washing, cleaning. Then I must study for 4 hours.
15 Years Old
Daniel
As part of our visits to DRC, we spoke to many children hoping to learn more about the lives of orphans in Kinshasa. We asked the usual questions about their favourite subjects, hobbies, and what they want to be when they grow up. The answers were typical of any child, ‘we love football,’ ‘We want to be doctors, ’ and ‘we like to play with our friends.’
We met Daniel Mkonagi. He is 15 years old and a perfect student at his school. He wants to be a lawyer when he grows up, and his main interest is football.
In our experience, it is sometimes tricky eliciting different responses when we ask children the typical questions; however, when we asked Daniel ‘why’ his answers had an eloquence, we couldn’t have scripted ourselves.
‘I want to be a lawyer because my older brother is a lawyer and my father wanted me to be one before he died.’
This wasn’t an off-the-cuff response.
‘I go to school from midday until 6pm.’ Surely you must enjoy your leisure time after school.
‘I have to do my chores when I get home; sweeping, washing, cleaning. Then I must study for 4 hours.
Now, thanks to sponsorship from Mamy Show Foundation, all of this has changed…
Who makes you study for those extra hours, your mother?
‘No, I make myself do it. Nelson Mandela said ‘Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world’’.
We had to ask him to repeat the quote so that we could write down the exact wording.
As he attended the afternoon session of schooling, I assumed he had his mornings for some free time.
‘No, in the mornings I help my mother as she is at work so I have to do some of the chores and get my clothes ready before I go to school. My only free time is during the weekend when I can play football and sometimes play PlayStation.
’ We always hope that the children we work with will grow up to be successful individuals who will give back to their communities. I asked him what he would do for his community.
‘I want to work for an organisation like yours that helps people. The food parcel you gave to my mother yesterday will help us a lot and make things easy for us’. We ended the conversation by asking him how we would eat an orange as we were clearly struggling. Apparently, it just needs some more peeling.
About Mamy Show
Useful Links
Copyright © 2023 Mamy Show Foundation. All Rights Reserved