Hope for begging talibe children, St-Louis Senegal

Robbie’s experience starting Maison de la Gare’s karate program

“This year's WKC World Karate Championship was all about karate, but it was also about so much more than karate.  It was about choosing to be positive in the face of tough challenges and how helping each other makes everyone feel better.  I was in Orlando, Florida competing with Team Canada at the WKC Worlds.  I am a second-degree black belt, and this was my fourth time competing at the Worlds for my country.  I was also there to try and raise some money and spread awareness about the situation of the forced begging talibé street kids in Saint Louis, Senegal, and about how karate is changing their lives for the better. 

A few years ago, when I was 13 years old, I visited Africa for the first time to volunteer at Maison de la Gare with my family.  I wanted to help, to have something to offer the kids I would be meeting in Senegal.  At home in Canada, I train and help teach karate.  I thought, what could be better than to share what I love and what I am good at?  I had to convince my family and Maison de la Gare that starting to teach karate to the talibé kids would be a good idea.  They agreed to give it a chance.

So, I got busy and gathered over 75 donated karate uniforms (gi’s) from families and dojos in my home town, packed them up, and took them to Senegal.  Once at Maison de la Gare, I just started doing karate and the kids were naturally interested.  By the end of the first week, all the gi’s we brought were being worn in my overflowing daily classes by kids who wanted to learn karate.  Imagine as a forced-begging, barefoot street kid how good it must feel being able to wear a clean white gi, and to be the center of attention while you learn to take control in your life!  Karate was such a success at Maison de la Gare that we decided to hire a local sensei to carry on giving classes after I had returned to Canada.

I have now been to Senegal three times to work with the boys of Maison de la Gare, register kids who show talent and dedication into an advanced program at the local dojo, train with them at the dojo, and coach the students to grade for higher belts.  I am so proud of how far they have come, and of the dedication and passion many of them show for the sport we all love.  I am looking forward to my next trip to Senegal to see my karate friends and to work with them again.

Now at the World Championships, I decided to spread the word beyond my home city, to let people know how karate is so important for the kids at Maison de la Gare.  I showed a video of the kids training in Africa, outside, under the sun in 40-degree (104°F) temperatures, never complaining.  In the pictures I showed, the karate kids were happy and determined, and looked like they were giving karate everything they had.  All of us who were competing at the Worlds also give karate everything we have.  But, we are never alone in pursuing our dreams.  Our parents and our senseis support us constantly.  Parents drive us to hundreds of training practices and dozens of tournaments each year.  They cheer us up and convince us to carry on when we are in pain and feel like we have had enough.  They do our stinky laundry and pay our coaching fees.  They cheer for us at our grading ceremonies, congratulate us when we win, and console us when we do not.  And our coaches help us push hard and to dig deep to find our best selves.  They share in our glory and support us in our pain and losses.

The talibé karate kids have none of this support.  They show up to karate classes after 6 to 10 hours of forced begging, having had very little to eat.  No parents or coaches encourage them to persevere.  They scrub their own gi's by hand and hang them to dry at Maison de la Gare.  They feel the same pain and disappointments my teammates and I do, but have only themselves to look to for motivation and determination.  When they achieve higher belts and win at tournaments, parents are never cheering from the sidelines.

And yet, they are as passionate about karate and as dedicated as I am.  We can learn so much from these amazing kids.  I certainly have.  The Maison de la Gare karate kids have taught me that, no matter how tough life’s challenges become, it is always possible to take back some control and choose to be happy.  And, there is always room for doing what you love.

Sometimes we can help make a difference for other people who face challenges outside their control, and sometimes we can fight for a little more control in our own lives.  And, when things happen outside our control, how we choose to react is always within our control - we can choose to be happy.  We can do what we love.”

Links:

• This report on our website, with many more photos
• Ce rapport en francais a notre site web avec beaucoup de photos
• Would you like to make a difference? Join us as a volunteer.

"I find it nearly impossible to put in to words everything that was my experience in Saint Louis with Maison de la Gare.  When I close my eyes and take myself back, I picture the love of my host family, the mother who cared for me when I fell ill in the first week.  All the different faces of the many children, their excitement and eagerness to play, for attention and to learn.  The incredible older talibés living at the center, all our conversations, the crazy party I threw for them; we danced all night drunk on adrenaline.  My daily walk to the center from my host family’s home, the beautiful sea, the Langue de Barbarie, all the colorful pirogues (fishing boats) and of course, in between all this, the life, the color and the love and warmth of all the Senegalese people I met, and the poverty and unimaginable suffering of little children.

I found Maison de la Gare a couple of years ago whilst browsing the internet looking for a French-speaking organization to volunteer with. I had just returned from teaching English abroad in Nablus, the West Bank. I had such an incredible experience and wanted to again be able to work for a small NGO, and Maison de la Gare is small.  I doubt I would have heard of it or the situation in Saint Louis if I hadn’t really wanted to speak some French!  Nobody I know knew anything about it before I explained where I was going for a few months. It was two and a half years later when I was able to become a Maison de la Gare volunteer.  During that time, in the back of my mind I thought about the horrible situation that the young talibés are subjected to. But it wasn’t quite real.

As much as one can read about the talibés and the work of Maison de la Gare, I don’t think anything can prepare someone for the first few days in Saint Louis.  The realization that one must live alongside this bizarre and unimaginably cruel situation and accept that the thefts of these children’s childhoods is a part of everyday life.  Perhaps most humbling, that most people in Saint Louis are powerless to do anything but live alongside it.  It is so very far from stepping outside my flat in England, where children would never be confronted with something as distressing as this, let alone be forced to experience it.

As citizens of the world shouldn’t we be coming together to end once and for all this tragic situation, recognizing that a matter of chance has given us the lives we have and that we are only a few hours away on a plane from something so unimaginable?

Walking past all these little children on the street as an adult, of course I feel a responsibility to do something.  I would buy little biscuits, sweets and fruit, and give them something.  But it is impossible to give to everyone.  Another great tragedy of the situation is that there are so many children fighting and competing over so little; there is never enough.

In my first hours as a volunteer, I was approached by two slightly older boys, Kalidou and Souleymane.  They asked me if I was English would I teach them English?  They had a great starting level.  I was happy to and from then on, every evening Monday to Friday, I taught a beginners’ and an advanced English class.  More students arrived.  I spent the hours in the office later in the evenings planning lessons.  I still feel guilty about some students who arrived mid-lesson with no English or French.  With too many students and not enough time I had to tell them to wait, I’ll teach you the alphabet and basic phrases when I can.  But sometimes these students were discouraged by their lack of understanding and they didn’t come back.  I hate that I was unable to schedule a beginner class for these boys and teach basics.  I had no way of contacting them again.  They vanished, and I hope they will have a chance to learn English another time.

I was continually impressed by the intelligence and passion for learning of many of the pupils, especially since none of them had been to school.  Being able to help them learn new words and answer their grammar questions and watch them progress was wonderful.  I was also aware, through the relationships I built up with these older boys, how alike they were to kids of their age in the UK.  We are all so similar and I hope that many, many more volunteers will follow me and continue teaching them and helping them improve. Their English abilities have opened the door of education that is the internet, and that is the way forward for them.

I had brought with me a set of theatre masks, designed to encourage play and creativity as well as emotional expression.  We had some fun and interesting lessons with talibés of all ages.  However, watching some of the smaller kids interact with the masks, it was clear how developmentally behind they were compared to kids I had taught before. I enjoyed greatly blasting Senegalese music from my speaker and setting up tables with the little kids drawing, making crafts and playing games together.

I personally have volunteered with different grassroots organizations and experienced many different testing situations therein, but my experience in Saint Louis was definitely the most difficult to cope with and the cruelest thing I have seen in my life - the sicknesses of the children living in terrible conditions, the lack of resources and the inability to give each and every child the love, comfort and support they deserve, not to mention clean clothes, shoes, enough food...

I would urge anyone with a passion for helping others and a desire to become a Maison de la Gare volunteer to do so keeping in mind the weight of the situation and the ways in which you will affect many children’s lives.  You will become a glimpse of stability and care and then literally disappear.  Stay as long as possible, two months was what I was able to afford.  I wish I could have stayed longer.  The more time you can spend building up relationships and working out how you can make a difference, the better.  Most importantly the contribution to the center as a volunteer is vital to its invaluable work in fighting for the rights of children and maintaining a safe space for them.

I hope everyone at Maison de le Gare, the staff like Abdou who were so welcoming and supportive, the local volunteers like Lala whose generosity and commitment to the talibés is remarkable, and all the older kids who showed me around Saint Louis and became great friends, know how much I appreciate you and am grateful for having you in my life."

Links:

• Joy's report on our website, with many photos
• Le rapport de Joy sur notre site web en francais
• You too can be a Maison de la Gare volunteer