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A Community-led Project to
Protect Children's Rights
Background
The Community-Led Social Protection Project (Child Protection Project) follows an earlier Tostan initiative, The Talibé Project.
Young boys in Senegal are often sent to Koranic schools, called daaras, to learn the tenets of Islam. At the daaras, students are expected to spend time begging in order to learn humility. What was initially intended as an educational and moral tool, however, has gradually become a tool of exploitation; many talib
és
are forced to beg almost exclusively, placing them in harmful conditions and limiting their time spent learning.
Aimed at addressing the needs of Senegal’s countless talibés, the Talibé Project worked to provide education and health care directly to this marginalized group.
After reviewing the results of this three-year initiative, a Tostan evaluation team realized that simply caring for talibés in the daaras was not a sustainable solution; what was needed was a project that addressed the deeper social norms and practices underlying this phenomenon in order to address the problem at its source. Through its experience, Tostan has also come to view issues of children’s rights more holistically; the challenges faced by children include not only forced begging, but also child labor, migration, trafficking, child/forced marriage, early pregnancy, lack of education, physical punishment, and others. Tostan believes that an empowering education that builds understanding of and discussion around all of these issues will enable communities and their social networks to find appropriate and sustainable solutions to protect the well-being of their children.
New Approach: The Child Protection Project
In 2010, Tostan introduced the Child Protection Module as a new addition to the organization’s human rights-based education program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP). This innovation grew out of the earlier Talibé
Project and benefits from the constructive insight and lessons learned from the evaluation. The Child Protection Module is a set of sessions designed to build consensus around human rights and children’s rights while building awareness of the various moral, social, and legal norms that affect children. It emphasizes the life-long importance of education and introduces ideas for how communities can work together to protect their children.
This module was created to be a special training for Community Management Committees (CMCs), which are established by each of Tostan’s partner communities to organize and lead the community’s development initiatives. The module serves as the launching point for the establishment of Commissions for Child Protection (CCPs) within the CMCs. These CCPs then take responsibility for leading the community’s advocacy and actions to protect children’s rights and transform the existing social norms that sustain harmful practices. In addition to leading these community-wide projects, the CCPs are also empowered to intervene directly in cases of child abuse.
Tostan is currently implementing the Child Protection Module in four regions across Senegal with 64 villages that have previously completed the Community Empowerment Program (CEP). The module is designed to reinforce the capacity of communities to identify situations or practices that place children at risk; to help them prevent and address the trafficking or migration of children to urban centers; to assist children faced with challenges such as sexual abuse, incest, forced marriage, or female genital cutting (FGC); and to build strong, dynamic structures through the CCPs that will ensure the long-term protection of children. Moving forward, Tostan will seek to expand the program and implement the Child
Protection Module in the other regions and countries in which we work.
Tostan’s approach to social change is centered on the belief that, when individuals are given new information in respectful ways, when communities are brought together to discuss and evaluate their norms and practices, and when entire social networks are engaged in the process, real and sustainable change is possible. What’s more, we have found that no matter where we are working, parents want what is best for their children and are eager to take steps to guarantee their well-being. As such, Tostan is confident that this community-led approach can create new social norms and practices that actively affirm and protect of the rights of children.
Tostan's work to protect children's rights continues to grow and expand. For more information about Tostan's work with talibés, please contact Malick Gueye at
protectiondelenfance@tostan.org
at Tostan Senegal.
Les activités menées par Tostan en faveur de la protection des talibés sont en effet en évolution et en accélération. Pour de plus amples renseignements, merci de contacter Malick Gueye au
protectiondelenfance@tostan.org
au Tostan Senegal.
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All of the photos featured in this article were captured and graciously donated by Lauren Pond.
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