In the heart of Mendoza, a long-held dream of many street educators came true: the launch of a Mobile School that delivers education, joy, and hope to places that once seemed out of reach.

On a recent trip to Bolivia, our master trainer Junieth Machado visited the organisation Sociedad San José in La Paz. This active and dynamic organisation has been working for over 145 years with children, adolescents, young people, and their families. They aim to join our network of partners.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, over 4.793.832 Ukrainian citizens have transited Romania. Most of the Ukrainian refugees are women, while 34% of the Ukrainian refugees are children. To meet the needs of these children, our StreetSmart partner Save the Children introduced a mobile school in the Romanian capital Bucharest in June 2022 to respond to the needs. In this interview with local coordinator Georgiana Dobre, we explore the challenges and successes of providing education and fostering connection for Ukrainian children and families since the beginning of the conflict.

The StreetSmart Wheels network in Latin America continues to grow! At the end of June, a promising potential partnership was explored in Brazil, the largest country in the region. Our friends at O Pequeno Nazareno are impatient to start using our StreetSmart tools, and we are thrilled to collaborate in providing more opportunities for the many street-connected children and adolescents in Fortaleza.

Mexico City is known worldwide for its countless tourist centers, from Aztec temples to historic murals, it is one of the largest urban areas in the world and the second largest in the Americas. There StreetSmart has a partner, Yolia Niñas de la Calle, which brings informal education to girls in street situations, but the need to give attention to street-connected children is bigger, and that’s why Fundación Pro Niños de la Calle also seeks an opportunity to bring StreetSmart Wheels to the streets. Let's meet this foundation!

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.

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".

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.

It’s official: as of this month, we have 5 Polish StreetSmart Wheels partners, bringing the total to 58! The fifth Polish mobile school project was just implemented in Racibórz with brand new partner Pomocna Dłoń.

After organising a first successful online Mobile School Exchange with partners from Europe, Asia and Africa, we organised a second international exchange, with our partners from Latin America and Spain.

In this new Mobile School article series, we introduce our amazing local partner organisations, who organise mobile school sessions multiple times per week to boost the self-esteem of street-connected youngsters. Today, we’re presenting one of our Nicaraguan partner organisations: Asociación Niñas y Niños del Fortín. Here are 8 things you really need to know about this partner:

In this new Mobile School article series, we would like to introduce our amazing local partner organisations that take out the mobile school multiple times per week to boost the self-esteem of street-connected youngsters. Today, we’re presenting our partner Ladies Union of Drama. Here are 9 things you really need to know about this Greek street work partner.

In a few days, our Mobile School facilitators are heading to Mexico to give a training to our two partner organisations there.

In 2008, Arnoud Raskin met Junieth Machado. It was the beginning of a close cooperation and friendship. The StreetwiZe Street Skills Model is partly based on Junieth’s inspiring story and she is still involved in Mobile School as a co-facilitator. Interested to learn more? In this interview, you can get to know her a bit better.

Several Mobile School partners across the globe are using their mobile schools to reach out to children and youngsters on the move. The partner organisation working with this target group closest to Belgium is Jugendamt Stadt Düsseldorf. We interviewed Martin Schlupkothen, the coordinator of the local mobile school project.