The 7th International Caritas Peace Camp

Despite of the ongoing violence in the region (Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq) the 94 participating children from 7 different nationalities demonstrated that a peaceful living together is possible.

Like every year since 1999 (with the exception of 2003 due to the Iraq war) Caritas Austria has organised  an International Peace Camp for needy children from the MONA-region in summer 2006, in close cooperation with various project partners from all over the Middle East. This camp takes place in a different country each year and in 2006 it was held in Jordan for the second time.

The goals have remained the same in the course of the years:

• Contribute to international understanding
• Promote the elimination of prejudice
• Strengthen mutual respect and tolerance
• Spark interest in other religions and cultures
• Enable careless holidays for disadvantaged children

94 needy children (orphans, refugees, street children...) aged 10 to 13 from 7 different countries of the Middle East were taking part: Lebanon - Syria - Palestine - Jordan - Iraq - Egypt and Yemen. In order to counteract the widespread preference of boys in the region, 2/3 of the children were girls and only 1/3 boys. The children belonged to approximately a dozen different Christian and Muslim denominations.

The camp was organised in close cooperation with SOS children’s villages Association Jordan and with the support of Caritas Jordan. The children and their counsellors (all together more than 130 people) were accommodated at the Theodor Schneller School (the former German school) at the outskirts of Amman - as it was already the case in 2002 - where they were very hospitably received. The camp goals (peace/tolerance) were communicated and demonstrated through the various activities that took place during the camp: Group works, competition games, sports, handicrafts and singing. The group works also included age-based workshops with professional trainers on topics such as non-violent conflict solution.

Special focus was put on the preparation and organisation of national evenings of all nations involved: the different delegations had the chance to present their home country through the preparation of typical dishes as well as by presenting folkloristic performances. At the end of the camp there was an international evening where the best performances were presented in front of a big audience.

Besides, various excursions were organised to the most important sites of the country, as for example to Amman (Roman theatre, the Royal automobile museum,…), to the Roman ruins of Jerash in the North of the country, to Madaba, to mount Nebo and to the Dead Sea. There were moreover visits to two SOS children villages in Amman and Irbid and common activities with the children living there.

For all children joining the camp it was the first time ever to leave their country, for many of them swimming in a swimming pool or eating in a restaurant was also a first time experience. The parents of the six children from Yemen for example are leprosy patients, and the kids had for the first time ever left the leprosy centre of Taiz (North of Yemen) and only slowly were losing their timidness - in their home country they don’t have any contact with children of their age, since they are stigmatised due to their parents’ disease and are therefore avoided by everyone.

Caritas Austria initiates and organises this unique project in the Middle East, however, numerous other organisations of the Caritas Internationalis network contribute financially to this project. The 2006 camp was financed by Caritas Internationalis (Vatican) such as the Caritas organisations of Austria, Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, Luxemburg and the US.

The completely surprising outbreak of the war in Lebanon was heavily burdening the organisation of the camp; in particular the tragic incidents were extremely disturbing for the team members from Lebanon. After intensive considerations it was decided to inform the children only shortly before the end of the camp about the situation in Lebanon, so that they would have at least a few careless holidays before their return to the war zone. The team actually succeeded in keeping the terrible news away from the children, which was in particular difficult for the Lebanese counsellors. During the day they had to be cheerful and joke and laugh with the kids of their group, and in the evenings they gathered in front of the TV to witness the destruction of their home country. Their commitment cannot be praised enough, since they have thus contributed to the success of the camp despite of the complicated conditions.

Shortly before the end of the camp the children coming from Lebanon (the Lebanese as well as the Palestinians living in different refugee camps in Lebanon) were finally prepared in an age-based way, with the support of an experienced psychologist, for the situation in their country. To the astonishment of many external observers the news were accepted much better by the children than expected (Lebanese children are obviously used to bad news due to the permanent tensions and crises in their country), and the fact that we could enable a telephone contact with all the parents helped a lot to calm the children, as well.

On July 31st all other participants departed for their respective home countries after a tearful good-bye, while Lebanese and Palestinians travelled first to Tartus in Syria (near the Lebanese boarder), where they spent one night at a centre run by a partner organisation of Caritas Salzburg (Kfarseta, a holiday resort for handicapped children of Terre des Hommes Syria). The following day they were taken to the boarder, from where they were collected by mini vans from the different schools that had selected the children for the camp (on that day there was a temporary cease fire).