Child Beggar's Father Fights Abusive Teacher

A rare step in Senegal: Beggar's father takes on abusive Quranic teacher By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI Associated Press Writer KAOLACK, Senegal August 16, 2008 (AP) Momodou Biteye, 7, right, eats lunch as he recovers from a beating by his Quranic teacher, in a... It hurts too much to lie on his back, so the 7-year-old has spent the past month stretched out on his stomach. His two grandmothers sit on the hospital bed beside him, fanning the pink flesh left exposed by his teacher's whip. It's progress that Momodou Biteye is in the hospital at all. It's also encouraging that the Quranic teacher who did this to him is behind bars. But what is most significant is that the boy's father — a poor farmer who sold part of his harvest to pay for the bus fare to the hospital — filed the charges against the teacher himself. In doing so, this man... [read full story]