Improving education and wellbeing amongst vulnerable children in Senegal

Plan is working in Senegal to improve the educational opportunities and general welfare of children attending Koranic schools, known as daaras.

Partly due to a lack of funds and resources, young people living as part of daara arrangements face substandard living conditions and inadequate educational provisions. Moreover, maltreatment and exploitation is common. Many of the students, or talibés, are some of Senegal's most vulnerable children, separated from friends and family and living on the street.

“Traditionally, children went to daaras to learn the Koran, but also to learn a profession – such as agriculture,” says Oumar Ben Khatab Gueye, a project worker at Plan Senegal. “But it is now corrupt. The talibés are now children who are on the street, in a difficult situation, vulnerable physically and mentally, and often mistreated.”

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