Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Senegal.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular interest
to you. You might be interested in
exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some manage to
leave the street. Perhaps your paper
could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how they are
abused by the public … and how they abuse each other. Would you like to write about market
children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** A Senegalese beggar
unmasked Hilary Heuler, The Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2008/0915/a-senegalese-beggar-unmasked [accessed 17 July
2011] For centuries, children in this deeply Muslim country have been sent away to religious schools (daaras) for an Islamic education. It’s a practice common throughout West Africa. But in modern Senegal – where most talibés are dressed in rags, visibly malnourished, and almost completely uneducated – it’s clear that the system is no longer working in their favor. They stalk pedestrians, beg money from passing cars, and scurry between traffic lanes for any spare change thrown from the windows. Hungry and exhausted, many spend their days sleeping on the streets. A few are orphans, but the majority are handed over to marabouts by their own parents. Most families in Senegal hold marabouts in high esteem, consulting them on everything from spiritual to political matters, and a marabout’s influence over his following is profound. “They are students,
but they are abandoned. No one takes care of them,” says Mouhamed Chérif Diop, director of a
program that helps talibés through the
nongovernmental organization (NGO) Tostan. “Their
lives are very hard. They can’t find food, often they can’t find clothes.” Sexually active
street children increasingly vulnerable to HIV UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews, www.irinnews.org/report/62639/senegal-sexually-active-street-children-increasingly-vulnerable-to-hiv [accessed 10 March
2015] One sees eight-year-old
children who already have several male and female partners who are older than
they are," said Adjiratou Sow Diallo Diouf, author of a 2005 study on the impact of HIV/AIDS
on The 30 children,
aged between 8 and 17, Diouf questioned for the
study revealed sexual relations that were both homosexual and heterosexual
and rarely protected, leaving them highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted
diseases including HIV. Samu Social Senegal Is
Helping Children Off The Streets Franklin Nossiter, Borgen Project, 20
September 2020 borgenproject.org/helping-children-off-the-streets/ [accessed 6 April
2021] To be sure, there are
many good marabouts in Senegal who do not exploit their charges and
faithfully impart their knowledge of the Quran. That being said, Human Rights
Watch estimates that over 100,000 talibé must beg
for food and money every day in Senegal. Beyond that, it is thought that many
talibé who remain in the daara
are subject to extreme abuse, malnutrition and lack of medical care. The
problem has reached epidemic proportions, with President Mack Sall vowing to “remove children from the streets.”
However, the extreme power and influence of many marabouts have hampered
government efforts. ***
ARCHIVES *** Senegal’s Street
Children Among Those Most at Risk for COVID-19 VOA News, 9 April
2020 [accessed 8 February
2023] Niokhobaye Diouf, director of a child protection committee with
Senegal’s Ministry of Family, said Senegalese authorities have a coronavirus
emergency plan for street children. Dakar has made 13 educational social
centers available, said Diouf, as well as other
community centers. They are talking about a capacity of 1,500 beds, he said. Keeping the talibes off the street to avoid coronavirus is key, said Amara Thiam, a nurse
with For a Childhood in Senegal. Thiam said infection in one talibe
would be a disaster because the child's daara, maybe
all daaras, would be subject to infection. When the
children go out on the street, he said, they interact a lot with each other. For a Childhood in
Senegal also ran a center that offered classrooms, playrooms, showers, a
bakery and a vegetable garden, making it a haven for talibes.
But now the center, like much of Dakar, is closed to prevent spreading the
virus. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/senegal.htm [accessed 21
December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Most trafficking victims are young males forced into
exploitive begging for Koranic teachers.
These boys, known as talibés, spend the
majority of the day begging for their Koranic teachers and are vulnerable to
sexual and other exploitation.
Domestically, some Koranic teachers bring children from rural areas to
CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - Since 2003, Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61589.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
- The
law provides for free education, and education policy declares education to
be compulsory for children ages 6 to 16; however, many children did not
attend school for lack of resources or available facilities. Students must
pay for their own books, uniforms, and other school supplies. Due to
government, NGO and international donor efforts, school enrollment reached
82.5 percent during the year. In fact, President Wade established
"Places for the Little Ones" throughout the country to serve as
pre-kindergartens for children. He also encouraged increased school
enrollment. However, the highest level of education attained by most children
is elementary school. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– According to the UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the
country had 100 thousand talibe boys and 10
thousand street children. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2006 [DOC] UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 29 September 2006 www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/b10f8e9681275570c125722d002cef25/$FILE/G0644838.doc [accessed 21
December 2010] [58] While noting the steps
taken by the State party to address the rights and needs of street children,
the Committee remains concerned about the increasing number of street
children and begging children in the State party. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1995 UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 27 November 1995 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/crc-senegal95.htm [accessed 21
December 2010] [14] The absence of
compulsory and free education at the primary level raises deep concern. Lives of Street
Children in Senegal to Improve through New Campaign The World Bank News,
February 13, 2007 web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21218879~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html [accessed 21
December 2010] CHILD TRAFFICKERS TARGETED - Poor parents who cannot afford to care for their children often entrust them to religious leaders known as marabous to educate them and teach them the Koran. Child traffickers posing as marabous will often kidnap the children from villages and take them to Dakar where they are forced to beg for handouts in the streets. Under threat of beatings, the children must give the money to their “masters.” Leaders of Senegal’s religious communities attending the Partnership launch denounced this practice, lamenting that the country’s noble tradition of teaching young boys the Koran has been so distorted and exploited. Despite an impressive body of research on street children prepared with the support of NGOs, UN agencies, and the World Bank, past efforts have been unable to put an end to this trend. For its part, the Government
has enacted laws to protect families and children but they are not enforced.
Meanwhile, the general public has come to accept the sight of boys as young
as 4 years old begging on city streets. Many unwittingly encourage the
situation by giving the children money, food or other small gifts. However,
the practice of begging is in itself dangerous as many children disrupt
traffic and get into accidents. PILOT PROJECT - Over the next 18
months, the Partnership will implement a pilot project in Kolda,
Tamba and Matam––the
three main cities from which the majority of street children originate––to
bring some 500 children back home or place those who cannot go home in
appropriate structures, and to rehabilitate a dozen centers for children. Naomi Schwarz, Thies www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2007-06-19-voa30/332669.html [accessed 3 January
2017] Ignace Thomas,
another volunteer, says drug and alcohol habits are some of the reasons these
youths ended up on the streets to begin with.
Their families would punish and yell at them for drinking too much, he
says, and the boys did not want to be told what to do, so they would
leave. In other cases, he says, there
are family problems that lead the youth to leave. UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/76080/senegal-why-the-talibe-problem-won-t-go-away [accessed 10 March
2015] These boys are `talibes’, followers of a `marabout’, to whom they were
entrusted by their families to learn the Koran. But their `marabout’ - like
many others who are caretakers of an estimated 10,000 children in Dakar -
does not have the means to support them.
Thousands of `talibes’ spend hours each day
walking the city in search of scraps of food and begging for money to meet a
daily quota exacted by their `marabouts’, or face beatings, talibe children told IRIN. Often with ripped clothes, barefoot and
filthy, the children move alone or in packs. Many never learn the Koran,
officials from non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) say, and rarely do they attain adequate schooling that will lead to
jobs when they become adults. Marching for street
kids UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/71734/senegal-marching-for-street-kids [accessed 10 March
2015] The United Nations
children's agency (UNICEF) in 2004 estimated that there are up to 100,000
child beggars in "We study the
Koran from the morning up to midday. Afterwards the kids go out in the
streets up to 3 p.m. in search of something to eat and then resume studying,
which takes us up to 4 p.m., after which time we go back out to find
something to eat," said Amadou, a pseudonym. Rose Skelton,
Reuters, article.wn.com/view/2006/11/08/Senegal_seeks_better_life_for_beggar_boys_n/ [accessed 17 July
2011] TRADITION - A 2004 estimate
by the United Nations children's fund UNICEF indicated up to 100,000
children, mostly talibe, were begging across Success Stories Global Fund for
Children At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 July
2011] ABDUL, West Africa:
Children in danger: Living on the street UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, St-Louis, 16 June 2006 www.irinnews.org/report/59343/west-africa-children-in-danger-living-on-the-street [accessed 10 March
2015] FORCED TO LEAVE THE
VIOLENCE
- It was because of another older brother that Ale left in the first place.
When his father died, and with his mother gone to live in St-Louis, he was
left in the village to work with his brother in the rice-fields. “Whenever he came
home and saw me and my friends and brothers playing instead of working in the
fields, he would beat us,” Ale said. The boy ran away from the village three times
to his mother’s small house in town, but each time she brought him back. So in 2004 he fled
as far as he could go, joining the tens of millions of other children living
on streets worldwide. Information about
Street Children - This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for Francophone Africa on Promoting and
Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 2-5 June 2004, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 2 October
2011] A child normally
has references within his or her family through which they build their own
identity as adults, but as soon as s/he starts to feel ill at ease within the
household, these ties break and the child starts to move away from the unit
in which s/he no longer feels comfortable. The majority migrate to the urban
areas to survive, and become street children. For The Smile Of A
Child UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO, Thies portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9649&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html [accessed 17 July
2011] Some street children
experience family rupture. Others, called “talibés”
(children entrusted by their parents to a wise man who insures their
religious education), live in “dahras”, generally
pitiful schools of the Koran. There, most of the day they beg to earn their living
and that of the wise man’s. The last group of children is made up of
adolescents called “fackmans” who, under the
influence of drugs, become violent and have broken all family ties. Senegal Ministry
Sets Plan To Reach Thousands Of Street Children By Rowland Croucher and others, 6 June 2003 Update from HCJB World
Radio jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/10969.htm [accessed 17 July
2011] [scroll down] SENEGAL MINISTRY SETS
PLAN TO REACH THOUSANDS OF STREET CHILDREN - This outreach began when the leader felt
a burden for the more than 300,000 street children of Street Children In Global Youth Action
Network GYAN At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 July
2011] Children of Children in Danger www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12283241?dopt=Abstract [accessed 17 July
2011] The principal
themes that emerge from this interview are that in www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=351365 [Last access date
unavailable] She said there was
a distinction between the talibés (pupils in Koranic
schools) and other kids who begged in the streets, adding that there were
some 500,000 street children in Exit the players Al-Ahram Weekly,
Issue No. 599, 15 - 21 August 2002 weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/599/cu1.htm [accessed 2 October
2011] weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2002/599/cu1.htm [accessed 3 January
2017] Curiously, the
other show, Enfants de nuit (Children
of the Night), was also spun out darkness, absence, helplessness and despair.
An exhibition-performance devised by 18 young artists aged between nine and
25 who come from the ranks of the poorest, most deprived and abused street
children in Senegal, and who live or have passed through the Man-Keneen-Ki home-cum-art school in Dakar. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
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