The school

A school is a mobile blackboard. It is a box on wheels that can be pulled through the streets by a street educator. A mobile school is like a telescope. On both sides of the main box, you can slide out another smaller box which in turn contains another two boards that can be slid out via the telescopic system. The compact mobile school, that in its closed form measures 1.5 meters, can be extended to 6 meters in length. This gives a total of 12 meters of blackboard, which can be covered with educational material. The educational panels can be attached to the blackboards by means of a simple screw system. One board is a puppet theatre.



The entire concept is developed according to the needs of the children and adapted to the context of the street.

The system is mobile and easily manoeuvrable. It has a high but narrow shape that fits on every sidewalk and through every standard-sized door. The school is developed in such a way that allows street educators to open up and close the school fast and efficiently. The school is theft proof, as all the materials are attached in such a way that nothing can be taken unnoticed. The materials of which it is constructed are strong, durable, and weather resistant (from tropical storms to the freezing cold temperatures of Romania and the heat of the Caribbean sun).

It has a colourful design that attracts children, triggers their curiosity and encourages them to participate and learn.


Awareness raising, technical formation and entrepreneurship

The mobile schools are made in a techinical community school in Munsterbilzen (Belgium), GSM. Mobile School and GSM deliberately chose to produce the mobile schools with Flemish pupils in an all-round educational project including awareness raising on cross-cultural issues, technical formation and entrepreneurship.



We do this in a Spin-off company on the school grounds of the GSM. The activities of this company consist of research, development, production, finances, logistics and HR, social and cross-cultural education. Central to the project are high-school graduates who continue to work another year within the Spin-off. These interns receive a minimum pay and a number of certificates for the extra trainings they receive during their internship. They produce the mobile schools in collaboration with different departments of the high school. A number of teachers with a flexible statute guide these interns of the Spin-off, alongside their regular activities in the school.


People involved internally:

1. Three or four high-school graduates.

2. Departments of mechanics (technical education) and welding (vocational education) actively participate in the production and development of the schools.

3. Guidance of the Spin-off by teachers (as supervisors).

4. Other courses within the school, like geography, religion, history, etc. can be involved as well by integrating the project in their curriculum.

5. A coordinator from the Mobile School vzw.


People involved externally:

1. Many stages of the work (painting, tire assembly) are done by pupils of a part-time school nearby. That way, these pupils can also be motivated to work on a project that has a concrete goal and a worthwhile cause.

2. Children younger than twelve also collaborate with the Mobile School. Every year, Mobile School vzw goes to elementary schools and gives workshops about the problems children in third world countries have to deal with. It is also possible for classes to visit the Mobile School. Due to all this, an increased appreciation is created for such technical and vocational courses, changing people's perception to value such schools more.

3. Mobile School vzw often guides final year papers or theses of students that attend college or university. Often these students (Educational Sciences) develop new materials for the Mobile School. Through technically adapting their educational concepts to the mobile school, the Spin-off company creates bridges between these two student groups.

4. Mobile School is supported, twice or three times a year, by the local community.

5. Local industry provides logistic support and choice of materials. A number of companies are permanently bound to the project. This way, the pupils are constantly in contact with the industry, which can be beneficial for them in the long-run when entering the job market.

6. Mobile School vzw is one of the main partners of the Spin-off and provides background information on the situation of street children and the specific objectives of the Mobile Schools. This is realised through classes, workshops, video projections, etc. Mobile School vzw also pays for all the production materials of the Spin-off.


Through this form of collaboration, Mobile School vzw is able to work on an all-round educationalal project both here in our own country as well as in developing countries through our partner organisations. Street children get access to basic education through an innovative form of education here in Belgium. This international or cross-cultural educational approach reduces the distance between the children in the streets and our children here.

The pupils who work on the mobile school obtain practical, 'on-the-job' skills they do not learn in school: loyalty, quality control, commercial insight, insight into organisational structures, the ability to handle stress, work-related management,... and general overall skills such as social skills, communication skills, sense of citizenship.

The project connects the education system (Munsterbilzen and other schools), with society and industry. Moreover, this broad educational project provides underpriviledged children in developing countries a fundamental and internationally recognised basic right THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION!. Education, solidarity and entrepreneurs join forces within this broad project.