Mohamed Reza, 10 years old

»My mother moved with my three sisters, two brothers and me from Mashhad to Tehran. My father passed away before I was born.
At first, I worked as a Fale* vendor and thereafter in a take away. I tidied the tables and cleaned there.
For one week now, I receive lessons in childrens centre.
My biggest desire is that my mother becomes well again — she has diabetes. My mother can not work because of her illness, but she cooks for us.
In the morning I go to the childrens centre and in the evening I assist my mother.
Money is not so very important for me, but rather my mother's health.
I've never celebrated my birthday.
In the future I would like to become a scientist.«

* Fale are excerpts from poems by for example the Persian poets Hafez or Saadi, which are sold in small envelopes and could be seen as a kind of Iranian form of fortune telling.

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