Story by Sydney Skov, Tostan Volunteer in Dakar, Senegal
Dressed in a suit, you would never guess that Aua Balde, a Tostan regional volunteer, had spent the past eight months living and working in the humid, rural region of Kolda, in southern Senegal. At the Novotel in downtown Dakar on Monday, June 28, this current Harvard Human Rights Henigson Fellow presented research on the subject of talibé in West Africa, an issue that recently has received much attention by international organizations, including Human Rights Watch.
The talibé phenomenon, according to Aua, is not limited to Senegal. It is trans-national in nature as around 40% of talibé in Senegal come from neighboring countries. Talibé, or Qu’aranic students, are sent by their parents, to daaras, or schools, in larger cities. There, talibé are to learn the Qur’an from religious teachers or marabouts. However, in most cases, marabouts do not have the means to support the students and the young boys are sent to the streets to beg. In doing this, the students are kept from a formal education. “They spend each day from 7am to 3pm begging,” explained Aua as she stood beside a poster board at the conference displaying the main points of her research and photos of young boys carrying oversized soup cans. “What time do they have to study?”
The conference, called “Promoting Resilience through Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa,” was sponsored by the European Report on Development and highlighted 14 young African researchers - including Aua, originally from Guinea-Bissau - who presented unique findings on an array of social protection issues. Aua’s specialty is child protection; with the completion of this paper, she will earn a post graduate degree in the subject from Coimbra University in Portugal. Previously, Aua earned a masters degree in international human rights law from Harvard Law School.
The talibé phenomenon, according to Aua, is not limited to Senegal. It is trans-national in nature as around 40% of talibé in Senegal come from neighboring countries. Talibé, or Qu’aranic students, are sent by their parents, to daaras, or schools, in larger cities. There, talibé are to learn the Qur’an from religious teachers or marabouts. However, in most cases, marabouts do not have the means to support the students and the young boys are sent to the streets to beg. In doing this, the students are kept from a formal education. “They spend each day from 7am to 3pm begging,” explained Aua as she stood beside a poster board at the conference displaying the main points of her research and photos of young boys carrying oversized soup cans. “What time do they have to study?”
The conference, called “Promoting Resilience through Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa,” was sponsored by the European Report on Development and highlighted 14 young African researchers - including Aua, originally from Guinea-Bissau - who presented unique findings on an array of social protection issues. Aua’s specialty is child protection; with the completion of this paper, she will earn a post graduate degree in the subject from Coimbra University in Portugal. Previously, Aua earned a masters degree in international human rights law from Harvard Law School.
Photo: Tostan volunteers attend Aua Balde’s presentation on the talibé phenomenon. From left: Caitlin Snyder, Josephine Ndao, Marisa Hesse, Zoe Williams (Tostan’s Volunteer Coordinator), Aua Balde, and Sydney Skov.
