Mobile School is not just a tool…

My name is Rob Sweldens, working with Mobile School as trainer and partnership coordinator, and I’m here in Bytom for 4 weeks together with my colleague Chiara Donadoni, to implement the 38^th mobile school in the wonderful street work project of the Center for Mission and Evangelism.

Our goal is to make sure all street educators have the necessary skills to go out on the street to work with street children on their self-esteem. Therefore we think there are three things very important in our trainings:

<    - strengthen counseling skills to work on empowerment of children

<    - try out as many different educational games on the mobile school

<    - make sure the group will work together on the street as a team.

In yesterday’s workshop about Creative Therapy, all three objectives were important. It was time to use all imagination and creativity and explore possibilities of this mobile school where participants couldn’t think of before. Using theatre skills some people couldn’t believe they would ever have, creating an environment of trust, experimenting with music and emotions, we tried to give everyone the possibility to try out his or her hidden talents.

And that in fact, is what it’s all about, also with children who are living in street situations. By opening up new possibilities for these children on a very easy accessible way, they can start experimenting and start believing in themselves.

This mobile school is like a magic hat, which can become a safe environment for children to talk and reflect about their own situation and to discover new talents. But no magic hat without the wizard… And I see some very talented wizards here in the organization who will do some magical things with the children in Bobrek using this mobile school.

Good luck from myself and the whole Mobile School Team!

www.mobileschool.org/en