KIRA KAY:

In a sandy courtyard in the city of Saint-Louis, a group of young boys begin their evening prayer studies. They are talibes, meaning students, and they have come 200 miles from their home villages to live with this Koranic master, called a marabout.

But their studies have only come at the end of a long, hard day's work begging on the streets. You see Senegal's talibes weaving in and out of traffic with their little yellow tubs or rusty cans. It's dangerous, dirty work, up to 10 hours a day. Along with morsels of food, they are hoping for money. They owe their marabout a quota of about a dollar a day.

Begging is used to teach talibes humility and resilience. But this marabout admits it's also a matter of simple economics.