International Day for Street Children 2020

COVID-19

In recent months, the coronavirus has taken over the world very quickly. Home working, lockdowns (light) and "social distancing" have suddenly become part of our daily reality. In the past Mobile School volunteers, in honor of International Day for Street Children, organized large campaigns to spotlight the 150 million guests who live and/or work on the street every day. These included large-scale pavement chalk actions on the Ladeuzeplein, Leuven, working together on the street, to a guerilla campaign in Ghent. Now that everyone has to stay away from each other, probably for a few more weeks, our volunteers had to re-think the concept for this year…

#BlijMetMijnKot (this means ‘Happy with my Home’)

In recent weeks, Belgians have been called upon to stay in their home (“Stay in your room!”). A slogan that must be followed to this day. After almost 4 weeks of "home quarantine", this starts to weigh heavily for most of us. We long for the street, for terraces, meeting with friends and family… On the other hand, we also realize that we can be happy in our rooms. 150 million children have to do without a safe room. Children who find their daily bite to eat from a tourist on a terrace who does not quite finish his pizza and shares the leftovers with them. Children who beg for a daily survival budget in a busy shopping street. Covid-19 currently means empty terraces and empty shopping streets. It will be even more difficult to survive. Some Mobile School partners even report on street children being arrested for disrespecting the lockdowns and hanging out in public places. But they don't have a room. Yet these guests also survive in these challenging circumstances and show us again why they are our source of inspiration!

Will you help us put the street children in "the picture"? Then join the #BlijMetMijnKot campaign.

It is ridiculously easy. Just follow the 4 steps in the attached image.

Grab your sleeping bag or blanket.
Write #BlijMetMijnKot on a piece of paper.
Crawl in your sleeping bag in front of your front door and hold up the paper.
Take a photo or video and post it on your social media (preferably on all channels you have 😉). Be sure to use the hashtags #BlijMetMijnKot and #StreetChildrensDay.

Thank you! We can’t wait to see your #BlijMetMijnKot photos and videos appear soon!