Desperation

All around Senegal you will see children begging. Thousands are homeless and sleep anywhere they can.

Most are malnourished, many sick, and all are desperate for food, shelter and love.

Their eyes are pleading as they clutch little bowls, hoping that someone will fill them.  Often they receive nothing.

Friend or foe

Many children are sent by their parents to live with a Marabout, a religious teacher, from whom learn the Koran.  The children follow an age-old practice of collecting coins on the street for their religious teacher.

However, some children are exploited and many are real beggars. With a third of the population surviving on less than a dollar a day, widespread poverty means that thousands of children are left to fend for themselves.

An endless rubbish dump

The endless rubbish you see in the video above is where beggar children will walk every day with nothing on their feet.  They are looking for food, clothes and things they can sell.  The smell is beyond belief, yet it is on the doorstep of people’s homes.

The government pretends it is not there, so as the rubbish gets higher – the problem gets bigger.

Facing reality

Barefoot and covered in dirt, one boy is not after food or money, he wants soap.  He simply wants to wash his clothes!

It is hard to see and hear about so many children living this kind of life.  All they can do is live one day at a time and survive.