Senegal: Reaching talibé child beggars

In Senegal’s worst Koranic schools, the teachers routinely send their pupils to beg on the streets, citing it as a part of their religious learning.

The children, known as ‘talibés’, receive no formal education and can suffer poor living conditions. Boys aged from 3 to 15 must earn their keep on the streets, while girls may be put to work in the school – or daara – itself.

Watch the clip to learn more and see how Plan is working as a partner in the USAID-funded Basic Education Project, which is supporting the introduction of a formal education cycle and better learning conditions into daaras in Louga and Dakar.

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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