In their head office in Mutundwe, the team went through a series of workshops to prepare themselves for the outreach work with the mobile school. The trainings were conducted by three StreetSmart trainers: Sander Degeling, Junieth Machado and Fredrick Mbise. Here, the team is discussing different statements during a workshop on self-esteem.
The mobile school is our hardware, but the educational panels that come with it are the software. A couple of newly redesigned panels on health were tried and tested for the very first time on the streets, like for example this panel on where to find help in different situations.
The long awaited first session with the mobile school was organised in Kisenyi, a busy area in central Kampala. With the help of some community members, the mobile school was loaded off the vehicle and installed in a quiet space where children could interact freely with the school. Here, a lot of children come to sell and recycle plastics they collect on the streets. In the area, the materials are melted in little ovens and reused again to make objects such as pots and pans.
Not only the street educators of Dwelling Places use the mobile school to empower street-connected children. The so called ‘street uncles’ were also really pleased to see the mobile school in action for the very first time. These street uncles and aunties are trusted members of the community who are in constant touch with the street educators to collect and spread information about the street-connected children.
On the last day of the implementation, the mobile school was taken to Kalerwe Market. Here, a lot of working children joined the session to discover the educational activities on the mobile school. In the coming weeks, the team of Dwelling Places will try out the school in multiple locations before setting a fixed intervention schedule for the outreach work with the mobile school.
