The limits of the child rights vernacularisation approach to ending child begging in Senegal’s Qur’anic schools

In Senegal, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have attempted to promote the rights of talibés – young boys studying in traditional residential Qur’anic schools, who are often required to beg – through workshops with their Qur’anic teachers. The NGOs employ specialists to relate child rights ideas to religious beliefs, a process akin to vernacularisation. Based on qualitative interview data collected in Senegal in 2017–2018, this article considers the limitations of this approach, demonstrating that, although Qur’anic teachers may remain unconvinced of messages around child begging, dismissing those unconvinced as illegitimate impostors allows NGOs to explain failures without changing their own worldview.