GYAN France Projects - Les enfants des rues au Sénégal

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Projects / Street children in Senegal: awareness raising in Europe, intervention on the ground

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I. Introduction

Children of Senegal's neighboring countries such as Mali, as well as children of Senegal's poorest regions, are often sent by their parents to religious leaders who commit to care for the children, and give them a Koranic education.

However, the living conditions of these students of the Koran - the "Talibés," remains below par.
The housing conditions are often overpopulated and do not meet a minimum level of hygiene.

Children's access to health care is simply lacking.

Here, a child infected with malaria lies in a dirt patch beside his housing.

II. The project

Although at a certain time, the education that the talibés received from the marabous (religious leaders) was of a good quality, today, in the large cities of West Africa, one often finds illiterate and poorly nourished talibés. These children are in need of long lasting aid.

We hope to develop partnerships with various civic actors of West Africa and to aid them in their projects with the talibés. We will specifically associate ourselves with the G1000 and the CREM UNESCO to aid these Senegalese street children.

We hope also to organize a team of volunteers who will go to Senegal in Spring of 2005. They will help with the distribution of medical and educational materials, and they will work in an awareness raising campaign in Senegal.

III. The campaigns

Will will work with the aforementioned partners in aiding a camp of talibés of approximately 60 children living just outside of Dakar, Senegal.

OUR ACTIONS WILL BE BASED AROUND 4 AXES:

A. An awareness raising campaign comprised of:

An artistic dimension (photo exhibitions with the French public)
- February - at la Maison des Initiatives Etudiantes de Paris
- March - at l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and at la Passerelle (April)
- May - at la Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris - Maison Internationale

An information campaign (newspapers, magazines, etc.)
- To contact our Networks in Senegal to publish an article of 3 pages on the phenomenon.
- To publish articles on the problem in the French press.

The partner organization that will distribute medical supplies will be the G1000, an NGO that is already engaged in distributing food and fresh water to the talibés. Here, a volunteer of the G1000 shows where the children come each day to retrieve potable water.

B. Health Campaign
Local partner: the G1000

- We will raise funds to purchase 60 mosquito nets as well as general medical kits
- Furthermore, we will search for 30 families who will welcome two children each week to share a meal together.

C. Educational Campaign
Local partner : le Centre de Ressources Educationnelles de Malika de l'UNESCO (CREM UNESCO)

This campaign consists in raising funds to purchase and send 2000 literacy books to the CREM UNESCO.

D. Finally, three volunteers will be sent to Senegal

Three volunteers will be sent to Senegal to deliver educational materials and medical supplies. The first will be sent in April, and he/she will work on educating the children on malaria, and will present each talibé to a family that will welcome the talibé for one meal per week.

Two volunteers, one in June and one in August, will similarly be sent to follow up on the progress made from the first volunteer's journey. They will write a report and share their findings with the rest of the team in order to review our actions and plan for a future intervention.

The CREM UNESCO welcomes volunteers who work with Senegalese children, such as this one photographed on the left in August of 2004.

CREM UNESCO collects books and works on literacy campaigns with Senegalese children.

IV. Get involved

There are several ways to get involved in this project. For example:

Become an intern or a volunteer

We would be happily welcome the help of volunteers for the realization of this project. To find out more, contact us.

Sponsor the project

We are looking for 60 sponsors, each one to donate the price of one mosquito net for one of the 60 children that we are trying to help. For only 7€, you can sponsor one child's net. To find out more, click here.