Aid programs focusing on helping street children have typically consisted in helping these children abandon street life by engaging in institutional support services that help reintegrate them into their families, society, school system, and culture. However, the traditional institutional setting is often rejected, as it inspires distrust and suspicion among the children, and inevitably affecting their commitment towards the program.

Mobile School, an organization aware of the drawbacks and limitations of an institutional setting, has developed a mobile structure that serves as a portable school and allows to reach out to children directly in their own environment. Portable classrooms consist of four wheel structures of five connected boxes  that slide in and out of each other. The box that is initially one and a half metres long becomes six metres long. The side of the boxes consist entirely of blackboard, to which street teachers can attach exercise cards to read, write, play or draw. The core themes are literacy and numeracy programs, creative therapy sessions, healthcare education and human rights. 

The program has been working primarily with street children in urban areas, children in refugee camps and specific targeted groups, such as street hookers. It has been implemented in several developing countries, including Colombia, Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia. Each school is run by local youth workers and through the interaction between street teacher and target group, it can be moulded to adapt to the environment it is placed in.