It measures an impressive… 50 centimetres! Despite its size, a little statue called Manneken Pis is one of the most popular tourist symbols in Belgium. Its name literally means "the kid who pees" and the statue lives up to the name. It is a naked child urinating.
It has been standing near the Grand Place in Brussels for the last 600 years. The Manneken Pis is often dressed in costume to celebrate an event or special day or to honour a profession and all the while it continues to pee.
On June 1, the bronze statue is dressing up again. It will wear the clothes of the Fula people from Nigeria, a nomadic group from West Africa. Oh, and the statue will pee milk all day.
June 1 is the United Nation’s World Milk Day, a day to highlight the problem of milk underproduction on the African continent. A cow there produces only 10-20% of the milk that a European or North American cow produces.
The initiative to dress up Manneken Pis on June 1 comes from Veterinarians Without Borders, a nongovernmental organization that wants to draw attention to this issue.