Human Trafficking in [Senegal] [other countries]Street Children in [Senegal Child Prostitution in [Senegal] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Senegal.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
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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.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=62639 [accessed 17 July 2011] 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. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF –
Senegal www.unicef.org/infobycountry/senegal.html [accessed 17 July 2011] 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 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61589.htm [accessed 21 December 2010] 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 [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. 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.” Lives of Street Children in The World Bank News, February 13, 2007 [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 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 July 2011] 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.aspx?ReportId=76080 [accessed 17 July 2011] 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.aspx?ReportId=71734 [accessed 17 July 2011] 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, Sexually active street children increasingly vulnerable to
HIV UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews, www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=62639 [accessed 17 July 2011] 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. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN,
St-Louis, 16 June 2006 www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=59343 [accessed 17 July 2011] 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] 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, Prof. Martin, "Street Children - |
Human Trafficking in [Senegal] [other countries]Street Children in [Senegal Child Prostitution in [Senegal] [other countries]