Let's stop the massacre of abused Talibés together!

This is not a stock photo, it happened a few days ago in Touba, Senegal, and the photo made the rounds of the media: unfortunately one of them, Fallou Fall, did not make it, he died by jumping into the void.

It happens in 2021 and the situation does not change: Human Rights Watch estimates in a report more than 100,000 abused Talibés in Senegal. 

Who are the Taliban?

These are children who, for cultural and economic reasons, are entrusted by farming families to a religious teacher and whose only training is to memorise the Koran. With few options, families often choose to entrust their children from the age of four to the "daara" (Koranic boarding school) so that they can grow up dedicated to religion and respected by the community.

But there is no control over the functioning of these facilities and the children are totally dependent on the person in charge - leaving the door open to any kind of abuse or exploitation .

In some facilities the children are forced to beg, in others their parents pay a minimal fee, and in this case the daara become real prisons: locked 24/7 for years in small flats without ever going out, they have no contact with the outside world and no possible activity other than memorising the Koran. 

Inboth cases the conditions are extremely precarious: no hygiene, no health care, insufficient and inadequate food, subject in many cases to violent corporal punishment for not learning the Koran well enough or not bringing the daily minimum required by the person in charge in the daara who live on alms.

The situation is dramatic, but we at Janghi want to take action

The situation is dramatic and if you have come to Dakar you will have seen them everywhere.

But not all daara are the same and we at Janghi cannot abandon the children to their fate. So over the years we have partnered with leaders who show real interest, drawing up programmes to complementsecular education and ensure a minimum of rights - we support children to go to school 'outside', to see other children, and to be off the streets. We provide food support, take care of their health, work on better hygiene, organise visits to the villages so that the children can see and hug their parents, support activities for their emancipation: football, the sea, exhibitions and much more. And, of course, protection: the Talibés no longer depend on a single person because in addition to the daara there is the school and our volunteers who work continuously to ensure that their most basic rights are guaranteed.

Read the story of Thierno, a Talibé whose life changed with Janghi . And... keep supporting us with donations so that we can start more projects for the Taliban.