Wah Wah has never been out, apart from the one time she went with her late father to watch a movie in one of the shopping centres. That was 4 years ago.
Naw Wah Wah (not her real name) is 6 going on 7 this year. According to her mother, Wah Wah is “exactly like her late father“. “She likes to sing and dance, just like my husband. And when she asks me to cook, she will ask for things that my husband used to cook. My husband likes spicy food, and she likes spicy food as well.”
Wah Wah wants to be a nurse when she grows up, because, she says that “I pity sick people“. I am quite sure that watching her father slowly degenerate and die of TB over a period of 5 years must have left an impression on her.
“I want to go to school to learn English. And after that, I want to complete my degree in nursing. I want to learn English because it is spoken worldwide.”
“And after that, what else do you want to do?”, I asked. “I don’t want to do anything else. Nursing is enough for me“, she replied.
“And what do you like to do?”
“I like singing and dancing. Every Saturday and Sunday I will go find a television and watch Indian movies. I used to do this with my father“. And like any child her age, she “likes to play video games and games on the handphone“.
Do you have friends? “I have one Chinese friend“, she replies. And she proudly holds her pet kitten Monkito up to her face so that I could take pictures of both of them.
Her mother explains that one of the women there knew about her daughter and introduced her to a Chinese family with a daughter her age. “They are very nice, they give her gifts, and their daughter likes ballet dancing just like my daughter. But their home is too far away and we are too afraid to go there often. She has no other friends her age because it is mostly men in this area. That is why she plays with dogs and cats“.
Wah Wah has never been out, apart from the one time she went with her late father to watch a movie in one of the shopping centres. That was 4 years ago, for her 2nd birthday.
August 6, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Where is Wah Wah now? Is there anything I can do to meet her?
Can I adopt her?
August 8, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Please help me with Wah Wah. I would like to adopt her. How do I go about dealing with her.
Jamil Aris
April 26, 2009 at 10:00 am
Jamil – Wah Wah has a mother. She has a family and adoption is not what she needs. Her story is a result of the systematic and institutionalized oppression that the citizens of Myanmar face on a daily basis. If you really want to help her, work on creating change in Burma. I don’t know what country you are from, but there might be an advocacy group near you or you can give donations to some organizations that work for change in Burma. Adopting a beautiful little girl would make you feel better and proud of yourself for your heroism, but asking to take a child away from her loving family is NOT helping. It is this short sighted “charity” that perpetuates the problems that this world faces. Channeling our funds and energy to the ROOT cause of the problem is much more effective and, in my opinion, our duty as people who live in a world of injustice.