Where Children Sleep

Photographer James Mollison has traveled around the world to see how children are living and where they sleep. The results are shocking because most of them are too poor to have a real bedroom, and the differences between the children are enormous. This can be a wake-up call for everybody.

Lamine is 12 and lives in Senegal. He is sleeping in a room with several other boys, and the beds are so simple that they use bricks for legs. He works on the school farm, where they learn how to dig, harvest maize, etc. In his spare time he loves playing football.

Tzvika is 9 and lives in Beitar Illit, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. He shares his room with his siblings.

Televisions and newspapers are banned as well as sports, so Tzivka likes to play religious computer games, and wants to become a rabbi.

Jamie is 9 and lives with his family in a penthouse on 5th Avenue, New York. He wants to be a lawyer like his father so he goes to a prestigious school. Besides that he takes judo and swimming classes.

Indira is 7 and lives with her family in Nepal. In their house there’s only one single room where the children shares a big mattress. She wakes up early in the morning and works six hours a day. She also goes to school but dreams about being a dancer when she gets older.

Kaya is 4, lives with her parents in a small apartment in Tokyo, Japan. Her bedroom is full of clothes and dolls. She has 30 dresses and coats, 30 pairs of shoes and a bunch of wigs. Kaya wants to be a cartoonist when she grows up.

Douha is 10 and lives with her huge family in a Palestinian refugee camp in Hebron, West Bank.  Her brother killed himself and 23 civilians in a suicide attack against the Israelis in 1996. Douha wants to be a paediatrician.

Jasmine is 4, lives in Kentucky, USA, with her parents and three brothers. She has entered more than 100 beauty pageant competitions. In her spare time she does rehearsals with her personal trainer. Jazzy dreams of being a rock star when she grows up.

This homeless boy and his family is living on a mattress in a field in Rome, Italy. The family came all the way from Romania, but when they arrived in Rome, they camped on private land until the police threw them off. The boy’s parents clean car windscreens because they cannot get legal work.

Dong is 9 and lives in Yunnan in south-west China with his big family. He loves to write and sing, and in the evenings he spends one hour doing his homework and one hour watching TV shows. He dreams of being a cop when growing up.

Roathy is 8 and lives on Phnom Penh in Cambodia. A huge rubbish dump is unfortunately his home, and his mattress is made from old tyres. He wakes up at six every morning to start work which is looking for cans and plastic bottles that they eventually sell to a recycling company. He has only one meal per day.

Thais is 11 and lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with her family. The neighbourhood she lives in are involved with lot of gang rivalry and drug abuse, but it has undergone major improvements. Thais wants to be a model when she gets older.

Nantio is 15 and a member of the Rendille tribe in northern Kenya. She lives in a tent where the whole family sleep. She went to a school village school but she quit because she is hoping that a moran (warrior) will marry her soon. before the marriage she has to undergo circumcision which is completely normal where they live.

Joey is 11 and lives in Kentucky, USA. He likes outdoor activity and to go hunting with his father, and he already owns two shotguns and a crossbow. His first kill was made when he was seven when he shot a deer. He also attends school and loves watching TV while petting his dragon lizard pet.