Verhalen & nieuws

Without a doubt Colombia is known worldwide for the series of drug lords and drugs, and the studies of the Integrated Illicit Crop Monitoring System of the United Nations Office, show that the production of narcotics is immense, and has been increasing. At the local level, the villagers know the local distribution networks as "las ollas", where addictions, violence and poverty reach boiling point. As a result children face different risks from a very young age, that is why Casa Tejiendo Sueños de Esperanza wants to provide new opportunities for these children through the mobile school.

On 17 December 2022, Mobile School will celebrate its 20th anniversary. Everyone is welcome to the #DUWMEE, a warm winter stroll full of animation with a party on the playground of the VTI in Leuven as a brilliant finale.

Our network of StreetSmart Wheels partners is constantly expanding! At the end of August, two of our trainers travelled to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu to explore a potential partnership with the local organisation Sath Sath. And despite the fact the organisation has already been in contact with StreetSmart for over 10 years, the prospection week showed there is still a high chance a new partnership could be established in the near future.

The intrepid tour of South America starts with Colombia, a journey that our founder Arnoud Raskin began more than 20 years ago to get to know the streets, reality and experiences of street children and youth in Latin America. Now our StreetSmart Wheels Coordinator Junieth Machado has had the opportunity to experience stories full of freedom, joy and friendship. Let's see how it went in Colombia!

After a long wait, due to Covid 19, mobile school number 62 was implemented successfully in Tbilisi with our new partner Caritas. This mobile school brings joy to kids that live in small villages with more than 3 nationalities, where languages are mixed and living conditions are poor. Below are the first pictures of the new school in action.

On April 12, we launched our new article series ‘Street educator in the Spotlight’. This month, we are heading to Mexico, where two extraordinary street educators - Jessika Martínez and Elizabeth Carrasco – spend every day hours and hours of work on the streets of Queretaro. Even after 10 years of street work, they say that there is always something new in the streets. Let's meet these two superstars whom the locals call "the ones with the green cart".

In 2018, we launched our first mobile school in the Malawian capital Lilongwe. However, due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, the school quickly became inactive. Mid-June, a solution was finally found, and our master trainers Bram Van de Putte and Fredrick Mbise travelled to Lilongwe to transfer the Malawian mobile school to our brand new partner Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO).

UNHCR reports that, since the start of the war in Ukraine, more than 6 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries. More than half of all Ukrainian refugees – close to 3 400 000 people – are now staying in Poland, which is why all Polish StreetSmart Wheels partner organizations will start-up or have started up outreach activities with Ukrainian children and youth.

Every organisation around the world working with children in vulnerable situations can contact us to apply for a StreetSmart Wheels partnership. Despite our presence in 31 countries on four continents, the Middle East region remains to this day a blank spot on our global map. But all of this might change quite soon! From May 9 till May 13, we were welcomed by the team of iLearn in the Jordanian capital Amman to explore a new potential partnership in the country.

Volgens de laatste statistieken zijn meer dan 5 miljoen Oekraïners de grenzen overgestoken om de verwoestende oorlog in hun land te ontvluchten, en miljoenen anderen zijn binnenlands ontheemd. De meeste vluchtelingen worden momenteel opgevangen in landen als Polen, Roemenië, Hongarije, Moldavië en Slowakije. Bovendien bestaat meer dan 90 procent van de vluchtelingen uit vrouwen en kinderen.

From March 28 till April 1, our StreetSmart trainer Bram Van de Putte travelled to West-Africa to explore another potential partnership. In Waterloo – the capital of the Western Area Rural District, located about 30 kilometres east of the capital Freetown – the organisation Good Deeds Day Sierra Leone is currently looking into the opportunity to use to mobile school to reach out to vulnerable young people in the region.

Today, April 12 marks the International Day for Street Children (IDSC). On this day, organisations and individuals around the globe join forces to demand respect for the rights of street-connected children. This year, the international day puts the focus on street educators, the brave individuals who work tirelessly with street-connected children. That’s why on this special day, we’re excited to launch our new series ‘Street educator in the spotlight’. And for this special occasion, we’re not putting the focus on one but on three street educators. Starting with: Faith Muyodi, Kevin Shumila and Marklaud Obuya from the Inuka Network in Eldoret, Kenya.