| SENEGAL: Tens of thousands of ‘talibé boys’ beg to survive IRIN photo essay - February 2008 In Senegal up to 100,000 children roam the streets begging for money and scraps of food in order to survive, according to the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2004). Many of these beggars are ‘talibés’ or Koranic students, who follow a religious teacher or ‘marabout’ to whom they are entrusted to learn the Koran. Originally, communities gave alms to children to help support religious teaching, but in many places this cultural practice has lost its value and become a means of forced begging. |