In March 2013, a fire erupted in the Dakar neighborhood of Medina and a Quranic boarding school, housed in a makeshift shack caught on fire. Eight young boys at the school were burned to death, but the guardian was absent because the house was unsanitary and uninhabitable. After the incident, President Macky Sall promised to end forced child begging and the inhuman living conditions in certain Quranic schools. While there has been some progress, Sall’s promise remains largely unrealized. This report examines the uneven government efforts in the year since the Medina tragedy. Interviews with boys experiencing such abuse and with Senegalese civil society activists working on the issue, coupled with site visits to some 25 Quranic schools in October 2013 and January 2014, revealed the serious consequences of insufficient government action.