By Rebecca Stein | Free the Slaves Intern
The Free the Slaves Aar Sunu Xaleyi (“Protect Our Children”) project has taken major steps to reduce the number of talibé children trapped in trafficking situations in the city of Saint-Louis and sustainably prevent children from being trafficked from the rural region of Kolda. Working with our local Senegalese partners ENDA Youth Action and PPDH, Free the Slaves has opened listening posts in Saint-Louis where child slaves can reach out for help, educated rural parents on the dangers of sending their children to religious schools in the city, helped school officials set enforceable standards for children sent to study away from home, and hosted seminars bringing together a range of Senegalese government officials and international organizations to encourage strengthened enforcement of Senegalese anti-trafficking laws and develop coordinated intervention strategies.
Another major project success has been the building of a religious school in the rural village of Medina Samba Diamanka. Residents of the village have typically sent their children to boarding schools in Saint-Louis to study because there was no religious school near their isolated village. These children were preyed upon by traffickers posing as religious teachers, who forced the children into street begging slavery instead of providing them with an education. As a result of our educational campaigns about the dangers of sending children to religious schools far from home, the village’s community child protection committee mobilized their neighbors to raise funds, hire an Islamic teacher, and build their own school. Now, 37 children are learning the Quran safely in their home village. Residents of Medina Samba Diamanka are also spreading the word about the dangers of far-off schools to neighboring communities, strengthening the new school’s capacity to serve as a model for other villages, which will increase the long-term safety of children in the region.
Free the Slaves has also succeeded in liberating children from slavery and reuniting families. Mamady, a member of the Medina Samba Diamanka village’s child protection committee, found his own nephew enslaved as a child street beggar while visiting Saint-Louis with Free the Slaves to witness the condition of enslaved child beggars firsthand. Mamady was able to rescue his nephew and return him to his home village, reuniting him with his family.Through our work in Senegal, Free the Slaves and our partners have liberated many children like Mamady’s nephew from slavery but hundreds of talibé children remain enslaved. Your support allows us to continue our liberation and child protection work in Senegal and around the world.
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