Annual Report StreetwiZe • Mobile School 2019

Street Deep Dive • onboaRding
22/04/2019 • 25/04/2019
Lore De Muynck
Pieter Crabbé
Caroline Coppens
Arnoud Raskin
ARSIS / PRAKSIS
Thessaloniki / Greece
StreetwiZe and Mobile School want their
employees to truely live the company’s mission.
Using street skills as a metaphor for business
situations or talking about the social impact of
your job, should never come from simply reading
about it. It should come from an authentic
interaction with street-connected people and
the outreach workers themselves.
Early 2019, StreetwiZe hired a content developer,
a trainer and a business development
officer. As none of them had ever worked with
street-connected children, the company organised
a deep dive in Greece. Thessaloniki is
currently hosting thousands of refugees and a
large Roma population which makes it an ideal
domain for Mobile School projects. So in April,
Lore, Caroline and Pieter flew to Thessaloniki
under the guidance of Arnoud Raskin. They
were welcomed by the local partner organisations
ARSIS and PRAKSIS.
The first Mobile School intervention took place
in a suburb called ‘Pereia’. Close to the city but
well hidden, a small Roma community is living
isolated from the local society. Circumstances
are rough as they literally live in an area full
of trash without electricity or running water.
Upon the arrival of the school, the kids were
immediately eager to start playing with the
educational panels.
The interaction with the Roma kids was a real
eye-opener to Lore, Caroline and Pieter. They
could highly appreciate the trust and confidence
between the outreach workers and the children
and all felt priviliged to be there.
The next day, the team visited another but yet
completely different Roma camp close to the
refugee camp of Diavatta, just outside the city.
In this camp, some of the houses look rather big
from the outside but are often completely empty
inside. Like in Pereia, the kids were very delighted
when they saw the van from PRAKSIS arriving. A
playful session with a lot of interaction with kids
from different ages made it another great learning
experience for the team.
The last intervention took place in Ksirokrini. The
purpose here is to connect children from refugees
with local children. Mobile School aims to
faciliate the integration of immigrants and to
teach Greek children about inclusion and respect
towards other cultures. A win-win we can all learn
from!
Thanks to this deep-dive Lore, Caroline and Pieter
experienced some great street skills and felt
some of the social impact of their daily work.
IMPACT
Authentic connection with the street-connected kids
Creation of purpose
Inspiration
Connection with the partner organisations of Mobile School
Impact on professional motivation
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