It’s been some time since my last post. I’m back in Canada now busy working out details of Project Management for Son Of Africa Society.
Late the other evening I came across a post on facebook that filled me with sadness and fear. Those feeling are always just below the surface for me. For these young boys, maybe it never goes away. I read this post……and all the comments posted in response. Lucien Ndong
Martyred innocence! I’m crying
On the small coast, I met this child who ran away from his dahra in kobongoye 2, 8 km from joal, on the axe djifere axis. I took him home, showered and fed, and the next day i brought him to the local autoritè for his support and for an exemplary punishment of the author of the act that happens to be the jewrigne of d ahra.Well, a week later, I’m learning that the file is without a follow-up, the talibé to the jewrigne.
Let’s save little gueye on the back of wounds caused by a fire-braised knife and applied to his back as a reprimand. The Author and his address are identifiable.
In pictures the horror!
The images from Lucien Ndongs post are shocking and hard to look at….. unimaginable that this could happen from someone that has been trusted to give care and education to these young boys. I applaud Mr. Ndong for taking this boy to his home, feeding and bathing him and then taking him to the authority to try to find justice to the man that did this. So many other would not have taken the time. It’s a reality here that many of the young boys endure, several of them do not survive the harsh treatment.
Shortly after I left Senegal in May of this year, My neighbour and Argo found a young Talibe who was lost near Son Of Africa. The boy told the story that he had come to the area with another boy but had become separated from him and did not know how to get back “home”. Both Aloune (my neighbour) and Argo took the boy to the police in the town and explained that they had the boy and would take him back to the city he claimed to be from and try to get him back to his Daara (school). They were instructed, in the event that the boy was not able to find where he lived,that they were to take him to the police center in that city.
They drove him back to the nearby city where the boy told him he had come from. Now 2 am, and deserted, the three of them walked the empty dark streets in search of his daara. The young boy kept telling them his place was “up there”, but each time they reached that destination, the daara was not there. They walked well into the night with him in search, but never finding. Finally, as instructed, they took him to the local police station. I wondered if the boy was really lost, or more afraid to go back to where he had come from. Knowing that this was a possible punishment for him, I think it was the latter. If I am here in Canada, or over in Africa, this is going on…and its truly heartbreaking, infuriating,…. unimaginable. I urge anyone anywhere to take a stand for children in need. I’ll never stop believing that there are more good people than bad in this world. Make your voice and actions known. This is somebody’s baby and this should never happen.