Boys Begging

Many young boys, many of whom are from villages, attend Muslim "schools"in the cities of Senegal. Sometimes very poor parents in the villages cannot support their children and they see this as a way for their children to eat and to learn. Many poor villagers believe that giving a Muslim holy man a child to educate will gain an entire family entrance to paradise! This practice dates back to the 11th century.
These "schools" are run by Muslim men, called Marabout, who are teaching the children the Koran. They do not teach other school subjects, and they teach the Koran for only about two hours per day. The "teaching" is really just memorizing the Koran. The rest of the day , or about nine hours, the young boys, many of whom are just six or seven years old, are required to go out into the streets to beg for money and food. The children are on their own until a certain time of day, at which time they are to report back and turn in the money. They collect an average of 300 African francs per day, which is just 72 cents. If they do not collect enough money, they may be beaten. It is such a sad life for these little boys! Sometimes they are forced to live in vacant or unfinished buildings. In Dakar alone, there are at least 7,600 child beggars, according to a study that was released in February. Each Marabout tries to gather more and more children so that he can become more and more wealthy!
In 2005 Senegal passed a law that made it a crime to force a child to beg, but there is an exception to the law---and that is begging for religious reasons.
(There are other legitimate and good Muslim schools.)

I was told one story about how a group of boys had saved out some of their money until they could buy a soccer ball. Then they found a business owner who agreed to keep the ball for them. Each day whenever they have reached their quota of donations, they go to get their ball and play for a while!

Look at the sad faces on these boys......