In the colorful city center of Rotterdam one can see on the front of a building the famous line from a poem of the Dutch poet Lucebert: “Everything of value is defenseless”. And what is more precious than the life of a child? Precious, but also defenseless. Entrusted to parents to take care of them. But what if parents are not able to do so? In Senegal we have seen the heartbreaking results of parents who are too poor to offer their kids a good future. A respected and hope giving way out of poverty is to send children to Koran schools for their education. A Maraboe (spiritual leader) will take care of them. Sometimes this goes well, but daily life in Dakar shows in a rather unprecedented way that often this does not work out well at all.
On almost every street corner young children crowd around cars that have stopped. With large cans in their hands they beg for money. Not for themselves, but for their Maraboes. These children are called Talibé, which means disciple. Their lives consist of reciting verses from the Koran in Arabic and begging out of fear for getting beaten for bringing in too little profits.
Ten thousands of children (according to some sources even hundreds of thousands) live this miserable life. Their parents hoped to bless them by sending them to a Maraboe, but for most children it has turned out to be a curse. For them the anagram of the mentioned poem, but now on a building in the poor section of Rotterdam-South: “Everything is worthless again” is more applicable.
You can watch a touching documentary of the BBC here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq4A7ay62is&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Ua0-m7Wcs&feature=watch_response[/youtube]
