Maison de la Gare's commitment
Maison de la Gare strives to support talibé children so that they become educated and responsible adults, capable of building their lives as they see fit and contributing to the development of Senegal. 
Every child has the right to education, moral support and the carefree life of a child, and Maison de la Gare strives to restore these rights to them.
Maison de la Gare is one of several organizations in Senegal working to improve the daily conditions and lives of talibé children begging on the streets. Faced with the intolerable abuses suffered by these children, many have responded with cries of outrage and, in the case of the government, with laws that are not enforced. Maison de la Gare takes a different approach, working in collaboration with the marabouts who control the children's lives, providing health care and giving children access to education, emotional support, sports and artistic activities, nutritious food and hope for the future.
The organization has earned the respect of government officials in Saint Louis, who now routinely turn to Maison de la Gare to obtain help in cases of abuse and extreme deprivation. At the national and even international level, Maison de la Gare … and in particular its president Issa Kouyaté … is recognized as a leader in the fight against talibé begging and in efforts to eradicate it.
The vision and mission of Maison de la Gare are to eliminate begging among talibé children in Senegal. The objectives for achieving this are set out in the organization's statutes:
- Assist talibé children and help them to stay healthy.
- Promote the education of talibé children.
- Prepare talibé children for productive integration into Senegalese society.
- Improve the living conditions of talibé children through learning programs, medical care, nutritional support, sports and artistic activities.
- Work in collaboration with Quranic teachers to improve and stabilize the living conditions of talibé children.
- Work with other organizations across Senegal as part of national efforts to eliminate talibé child begging.
- Promoting children's rights
Since its beginnings in the old Saint-Louis station, Maison de la Gare has acquired a permanent site in the central Sor neighborhood of Saint-Louis (2009), built a reception center with three classrooms, restrooms and showers, an office and workshops (2010), an infirmary and library (2011), an emergency dormitory (2014), and the sewing apprenticeship building in 2018. Our agricultural apprenticeship program in the nearby town of Bango, about 8 km from our Saint-Louis center, began in 2016, and we expanded it in 2018 to include a poultry apprenticeship program. In 2020, we added the microfinance program as another way to help older children, graduates of our apprenticeship programs, and others support themselves by starting and growing successful small businesses.
