1. Start-Up
The mobile school project of Instituto Politécnico Tomás Katari (IPTK) is the second oldest of Bolivia, after the one in El Alto. It was started up in 2005, as one of the projects of IPTK’s Centre of Integral Pedagogical Resources (abbreviated as CERPI in Spanish). 15 years later, the mobile school is still rolling around the streets of Sucre.
2. Enzo
The mobile school in Sucre is a special one. It was dedicated to Enzo, a kind and amazing boy, who passed away in a traffic accident in 2005. It was his dream to make sure street-connected children had more possibilities, more chances in life and therefore, he wanted to help start up a mobile school project. His family made that dream come true and are still supporting mobile school projects worldwide by being active Mobile School volunteers.
3. Tons of experience
Street educator Gladys has been a part of the project since the very beginning, which makes her the most experienced mobile school street educator of all our StreetSmart Wheels partners! That’s why she can explain, like no other, what the mobile school project entails:
4. Helping hands
Gladys, of course, is not on her own. She can count on the support of her colleague Rodrigo, who has wonderful musical skills and has been working by Gladys’ side for the past three years. Together, they make up a great team! Usually, the local team can also rely on the helping hands of international volunteers, but due to COVID-19 that’s unfortunately not possible at the moment.
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5. The more, the merrier
The team weekly conducts six mobile school sessions. They reach out to six different communities once a week. During these mobile school sessions, the ream registers no less than 8000 positive contact moments on average every year!
6. Workshops
Each year, the mobile school team also organises special interactive workshops in the communities about one central topic, to raise awareness. They already gave workshops about drugs and alcohol, sexuality, abuse and much more. To really get the children involved, the team develops new educational materials and they include theatre plays and interactive games.
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7. COVID-19 times
And then COVID-19 struck, making it impossible to organise outreach sessions with the mobile school. Because it is so crucial to stay in touch with the children and youngsters, the team still organises visits to the different communities to hand out food and self-made booklets with educational games:
In addition, they use the radio as a means to stay connected with their target groups by broadcasting a fun show, since often the children and their families do not have access to the internet to attend online classes.
Know more?
Want to know more about the incredible work of IPTK? Check out their website: http://www.iptk.org.bo/ or their Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/IPTK.SUCRE.BOLIVIA (general) and https://www.facebook.com/Escuela.Movil.IPTK (mobile school project specifically).
