saving the talies!

what is a talibe?
they are little boys (usually ages 5-15) who go to koranic school to learn the koran. most of these boys live at the school under the supervision of a imam or marabou (religous leader and teacher). during the day when they are not in class these boys will go throughout towns begging for food and money which is then given to the marabou and is (supposed to be but never enforced) used to clothe, feed, and raise the talibes. however, this is rarely the case, especially in large cities. marabous often take the money themselves and beat talibes who only bring back food or not enough money. (many talibes have quotas they need to fill by the end of the day). as a result, these boys are often the most malnourished and overlooked part of senegal. they sleep in overcrowded, dirty spaces and usually just on the floor with no mats or blankets. it's rare to see a talibe wearing shoes or clothes that properly fit them.

as a toubak, i have a huge target on my back for talibes, as does any visitor. this often means we get followed anywhere we go by one or two whenever we are in dakar, saint-louis, etc. it's frustrating because while you feel so incredibly bad for these kids who are forced to beg, you are also extremely annoyed because they do not leave you alone until you give them something. this is one of the many many many reasons it is hard for me to accept a culture that condones begging and neglects children.

so, lauren and i decided to do something for these guys. we had a few mosquito nets left over from our distributions and we decided to give these nets to the various koranic schools in podor. though podor is a smaller city (about the size of platteville) there are over 400 talibes, about two thirds are 12 and under. lauren went around to each of the schools, talked to the marabous and tallied up the number of talibes (aka the tali' tally) i came up for a few days and we were able to distribute to all twelve schools.

this was a great project for me for many reasons. not only were talibes given mosquito nets and now completely covered at night from malaria, but they were also given medicine for schistosomiasis from the health center at the same time. we got to spend time with each school, play with the boys, and talk to the marabou's about malaria and taking care of the boys. in general, the distribution went really well i think it will be a great help for these schools.

it was also really interesting to see the differences between the schools. there were a few school that were clean, had sleeping spaces for each boy, had a schedule for class, fieldwork, etc and the marabous knew each and every kid's name. then there were marabous who had no idea what kids were in their school, were overcrowded, dirty, didn't take care of their kids and even hit the kids in front of us. one even started pulling boys off the street so that we would give them more nets. it was so incredible to see such great differences between schools, even in a small city like podor. it was really obvious which marabous took care of their boys and took their job seriously and lived out the koran truely, while others just took advantage of their power position within their communities.

at the end, the boys were what really mattered and now when we're in podor, we are loved by the talibes and they no longer hassel us but follow us around because they're so thankful. it isn't much, just a few mosquito nets, but for these kids it made all the difference.

cheers!