Starting When He Was Just 5 Years Old, This Kid Has Sent 1,000 Letters Around The World

When he was five years old, Toby Little read a  bookcalled A Letter to New Zealandby Alison Hawes. After learning how letters travel through the postal system, he asked his mom Sabine if he could send a letter to New Zealand, too. But he wasn't content with just writing to one country; he wanted to write to the whole world. Now nine, Toby has sent over 1,000 letters — and received 462 replies so far. 

"I started the project because I wanted to find out more about the world, help people understand each other better, and make the world a better place — and I still do!" he says on his website.

Toby's mother said, "Toby is very interested in the world, and so I thought... let's give it a go... foolishly assuming that he would lose interest about five letters in. He didn't."

Since he started, Toby has written to people all over the world, including research scientists in Antarctica, and even the Pope.

Sometimes the replies take a lot of work to receive, such as this reply from South Sudan that had to be posted from Nairobi, Kenya.

It's quite the project to find contacts in every country!

Some of the replies also include samples of the local culture, like this horde of Japanese treats from Fukushima.

And now I'm craving Pocky...

In 2016 a book was released containing many of Toby's letters and replies. 

It's called, Dear World, How Are You?

Tell us in the COMMENTSif you've ever sent a letter to a faraway place! 

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