Senegalese Volunteers Take Action for the Talibé Children

Thanks to Rose Mbaye, Eyram Adedze, Ben Ouattara, Mame Coumba and "Davis Projects for Peace", Senegalese university students have joined the struggle for justice

This project came to pass thanks to the initiative of four African students from the University of Rochester in New York and a grant that they received from Davis Projects for Peace. The project made it possible for close to fifty Senegalese volunteers to address a problem close to their hearts, a problem they thought they could eliminate or reduce. Many of these volunteers, however, were only beginning to learn what exploitation truly is.

The volunteers were mainly students from Gaston Berger University in Saint Louis and Alioune Diop University in Bambey. They gave up their summer vacations to help Maison de la Gare in its efforts for the talibé children, and to learn more about how organizations committed to child protection act on behalf of the victims of abuse. The project was actively supported by the Ministry of Justice through its office for social action in open environments (AEMO), along with the Prefect, the Governor and the General Secretary of Maîtres Coraniques du Sénégal (Quranic Teachers of Senegal).

The university volunteers divided into groups for the activities in Maison de la Gare’s welcome centre, to allow everyone to be fully involved and to energize the activities with friendly competition between the groups. The talibé children felt the warm embrace of these university students and were open to discussing with them while cooperating fully with their instructions for the various activities. The students animated creative activities such as coloring, making collages, playing checkers and making masterpieces out of recycled materials. And they taught French and basic math classes. They reinforced for Maison de la Gare that it’s not necessary to wait for help from the outside in order to take action on behalf of the talibé children.

Maison de la Gare has always worked to provide the talibé children with possibilities for developing their personal potential. In addition to education, gardening, football and karate, there is one activity that the children have embraced to show their awareness of the challenges of society and their ability to contribute. Working with the volunteers, many of the children focused on creating their own small cars. Others, more daring, made masks with used oil tins, drink cans and empty deodorant bottles. There is a promising future ahead for many of these young people. About fifty young talibé children showed us what they were capable of, through objects, colors, shapes and even morphology. They bequeathed their personalities to these works, marking them uniquely with a symbol which was their true name.

In another initiative, groups of ten volunteers went into the streets of Saint Louis to collect money and clothing for the children. The idea was to ask for donations of clothing for the talibé children from homes and stores, but many people preferred instead to donate money and other things. At the end of the project, the clothing collected was distributed to the talibé children, and the money was used to contribute to the cost of renovations carried out in a number of daaras.

Mapaté summarizes the project in this way: “For us, this project was a great success. The objectives that had been set both by the volunteers and by Maison de la Gare were achieved. For Maison de la Gare, the project supported us enormously in our daily efforts to come to the aid of the talibé children. We were able to revisit many daaras and to improve conditions there. Also, the volunteers carried the message about the situation of the talibé children to many people in the local community, with the collaboration of families linked to the daaras and of the marabouts themselves. And in terms of education, the university student volunteers reinforced the children’s abilities in French, in math and in creative art.”

Above all, this project made it possible for the Senegalese university students to be volunteers in their own country. Even though much infrastructure is lacking, this very visible initiative gave local organizations an understanding of the collaborative efforts that Maison de la Gare has set in motion. And we were able to see how Senegalese volunteers can contribute to improving the lives of the talibés children, in parallel with the invaluable contributions made over many years by volunteers from the developed world.

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