(ANS - Madrid) - For the World Day against Child Slavery, which is commemorated tomorrow, 16 April, the Salesian Mission Office in Madrid has issued a statement about the "nine million children (who) live as slaves."  They quote the example of Abu, a 10-year old Senegalese boy, exploited by being forced to beg on the streets.

"The marabou forces me to beg all day and get money, rice and sugar for him. He beats me if I do not get enough," says Abu. Malick, Moduo, Aliou and thousands of talibé children live the same way as Abu, spending all their days wandering the streets of the city of Senegal.

The talibé are students collected by the masters, called marabou, from the  thousands of Koranic schools in the country. "Parents entrust their children's education and well-being to the marabou, not knowing that, in many cases, they will not learn the Koran but are taught to beg, and many suffer abuse and slavery," says Patricia Rodríguez, Head of Projects of the Mission Office in Madrid. According to the Salesian missionaries, this phenomenon is on the increase in Senegal, "but it also occurs in Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso ... and is spreading across West Africa," adds Ms Rodríguez.

Salesian missionaries, especially in Dakar and Thies, are aware of the situation of the small talibé. They tryto meet them and offer them opportunities for play and recreation with other children, to allow them return to live as children. "However,” Ms Rodríguez says, “it is important to have a complete change in the mindset of society to face this issue head-on. It is part a manipulation of religion that is expanding in these countries."

Tomorrow is World Day against Child Slavery. The Salesian Mission Office in Madrid does not want to miss the opportunity to denounce this phenomenon.

"More than nine million children are enslaved in different parts of the world. These include the 5.7 million children who are forced to work, almost two million sexually exploited, over one million victims of trafficking, 300,000 child soldiers ... all children whose childhood has been destroyed." The Salesian missionaries face this reality every day and try to improve the lives of thousands of children and young people through youth centres, schools and projects that try to restore childhood to these young people.

Published 15/04/2014