The Challenge:
For the thousands of children working the streets of La Paz, traditional schooling is often impossible. Most are forced to choose between an education and the income needed to survive. To reach them, the IDC needed to rethink the traditional classroom and integrate learning into the existing economy of the street.

The Intervention vendingEDUCATION is a viral, street-based school system that piggybacks on the robust support systems serving the sprawling network of Bolivian street vendors around La Paz. Rather than building new infrastructure, we designed educational "modules" across four scales:

• XS (Postcards): Skill-based educational cards that are distributed by hand and deployed anywhere.

• Small (Shoe-Shine Boxes): Micro-learning kits that create temporary learning environments on street corners.

• Medium (Handcarts): Mobile educational hubs built on street cart chassis and deployed within markets. 

• Large (Vending Booths): More permanent micro-schools capable of being embedded within neighborhood vending stalls.

The Impact By aligning education with the rigors of the Bolivian streetscape, the IDC eliminated the travel and time costs that bar many children from learning. Alternative versions of this system have already been scaled into more permanent community assets, including the El Alto Makerspace and a Park-in-a-Cart asset capable of creating recreational areas on streets and open lots within the informal community of El Alto.