The StreetWise School currently meets five days a week in and provides its students with meals, clothes, washing facilities, education, books and supplies, and basic health services. StreetWise engages its students in constructive activities, and explores ways in which to cope with health, poverty and injustice, while offering positive methods of conveying feelings and emotions through art, drama, music and dance. StreetWise offers children survival tools to prepare for a sustainable future and an alternative to life on the streets... Read More
The Objective: Our Boarding School
We are still in our pilot phase and continue to fine-tune our program and will remain so until we become a full-fledged boarding school. We aim to graduate into a boarding school where students will be offered additional services such as room and board, showering facilities... Read More
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The Challenge
Very early in the program we realized that guardians would not allow the children to attend school on a regular basis because they were economically dependent on them. We had to find a way for our students to continue providing for their families while they were getting an education. Since we needed to generate income for the guardians, in order to keep our children off the streets, we decided to sell goods.
The StreetWise Product
Each StreetWise product for sale has one thing in common, whether a T-shirt, a poster or a lamp, it bears a reproduction of our students’ artwork from art class. The reason behind our choice of producing ‘printed artwork’ is that it can be reproduced in large numbers.

Instead of each child having to spend endless hours creating a handful of art products, the print reproductions maximize the value of each piece of art. The time saved, and the supplemental return in funds, not only allows the students to get an education, it enables them to provide for their families and generate income for running the school. All this, simply as a by-product of art class. StreetWise makes sure that its students first priority is getting an education. We don’t believe in running a sweat-shop at the expense of education.
The children at our school are very special children. Each have their unique backgrounds and also a shared one. They live on the streets or, have at one point, lived on the streets. They have faced poverty, hunger and abuse on many different levels. Everyday, our children are exposed to persons engaged in criminal activities, bribes, physical abuse, drugs and alcohol, pimps, sexual predators, violence and kidnapping... Read More
The Revenue Model
A percentage of the profits from the sales of the StreetWise product is directed towards driving the school forward. And the rest is distributed to the children to hand over to their guardians. As children actually ‘earn’ their stay in the program, they are no longer receivers of charity. This makes a big difference regarding their responsibility, loyalty and pride towards the program... Read More
StreetWise Updates
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Contact Us
Anita Aparna Muyeed
Director, The StreetWise Project
anita.muyeed@gmail.com