In early February, a team of Mobile School trainers travelled to Sri Lanka to start up the first new mobile school of 2020. From now on, our partner Child Action Lanka will use the mobile school to reach out to vulnerable youngsters in communities in and around Kandy and Kelaniya. And guess what … the first street sessions immediately showed the potential of our box on wheels in the island nation.
Partner Child Action Lanka runs educational centers in seven districts all over the country. In order to reach more young people directly in their livelihood, the organisation reached out to mobile school to investigate a potential partnership. After a successful exploration in May 2019, both parties were convinced the mobile school methodology had great potential to bring creative non-formal education directly to young people.
During a two-week implementation, teachers and social workers of the different centres of Child Action Lanka were trained on how to use the mobile school and the educational materials effectively. Below, five pictures briefly tell the story of the first weeks of our new Asian partnership.
First street intervention with the mobile school in Gohagoda in Kandy, Central Sri Lanka. The mobile school was warmly welcomed by the community living next to the nearby dumpsite.
Co-facilitator Adi Craciun (Save the Children Iasi, Romania) helps a child to solve a mathematical crossword puzzle. Thanks to Adi – who has 13 years of experience in mobile school work - the outreach team of CAL was able to get some very practical tips and tricks on how to run the mobile school project effectively.
Our new StreetwiZe facilitator Davy Caelen joined the Mobile School team during the workshops and street visits in Sri Lanka in order to gain street experience to use during his StreetwiZe workshops with companies in Belgium. During the creative therapy, the team played a couple of trust games to strengthen the team dynamics.
To wrap up the mobile school session, educators from CAL gather all the children for a final team energizer. In the picture, street educators Prashanth and Yasho explain the ‘Prince - Princess – Dragon’ game to a group of curious kids.
Drawing skills alert! A boy draws one of the characters of our brand new Guess Who game during a mobile school session in Kelaniya, near Colombo. The Guess Who game was recently redeveloped by our illustrator Gijs Vanhee, and was tested on the streets of Sri Lanka for the very first time. Great success!
