Team members' feedback

During summer SOS Children's Village has participated in the Caritas Peace camp 2009 in Lebanon in the period 16th July until the 7th of August to represent Jordan and SOS. 
In this camp (8) countries participated (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen). There were around 95 children's; nine of them were SOS Children's.
Caritas Peace Camp gathered children's from different nationalities and religions. The main goal of the camp was to give a chance for those abandoned, disadvantaged and orphan children's to have a better life and to spend a nice vacation during the 3 weeks of the camp.
The participation of the SOS children's gave them an idea about others life and how miserable circumstances these children's are living. This experience made them glad and grateful for their own life because they are living in better conditions.
Before coming to Lebanon the children's were very excited and happy because they are joining a camp. One of the children's prepared his travel bag before 2 weeks and the other could not sleep because he did not believe that he is going to participate in the camp.
The travel day has come and everybody was interested and excited to reach the camp. After 9 hours of traveling we arrived to the convent, there were many children's sitting in circle and waiting for the Jordanian group. Everybody came to welcome us and they helped us to go to our rooms.
At the beginning of the camp we were separated into (10) groups, each group consist children's of different nationalities, colors and religions. I took a group of (10-12) years children, they were the best!!! The aim of this was to let the children communicate with each other in order to integrate easily. The first two days were difficult to some of the children's because they faced problems in integration and with their new groups. This problem was solved very quickly as the activities started.
There were many activities during the camp: indoor and outdoor activities. We visited many important places in Lebanon such as:
Saida, Baalbek, Cedar Land, The National museum of Beirut, Tripoli, Downtown of Beirut, and many other place.
Also we visited the animal zoo, have a tour in the boat twice, and going to the Rio Lento twice to swim.

The Daily schedule of the camp was:
- Sport in the morning
- Breakfast.
- Distributing charges for the groups ( each group has a specific charge daily, this helped the children's to have the team spirit, cooperation  and to love each other).
- Specific topic in order to discuss it with the children's such as: children's rights and duties, the world map, hygiene and its effect on health, some important skills like: love, cooperation, life skills….
- Lunch
- Getting rest and taking a nap.
- Snack.
- Sport and different games.
- Dinner.
- Shower.
- Every night there was a schedule to entertain the children's, playing and dancing, the star of the day….
- Bed time for the children's.
- Meeting with the team leader and staff in order to evaluate the day and to prepare for the next day.

In the last ten days, each country has a day to celebrate and represent their country in front of all the participants. When our turn came to represent Jordan the children's were well prepared and excited to show other what is Jordan. In lunch time we served a known dish in Jordan called "magloobeh", everyone tried it and I think they liked it. Through the celebration the children's had some knowledge about traditions and heritage for different countries. This helped the children's to have a closer relationship with each other.
The camp arranged a visit to the SOS Children's village- Bahr Saf in Beirut. The Jordanian children's were very excited to visit this village because they are from SOS Children's villages. The children's were very interested to see how those children's live, especially because they have the same circumstances. This activity was very impressive and left a memory that would last forever for our children's.
In the last day of the camp an international day was held in the convent. All the countries participated in this event in order to represent their country. Representatives of each country, ambassadors, SOS children's of Bahr Saf and people from the community attend this event. The Lebanese singer Miriam fares made a surprise for the children and came to see them while performance, at the end of the celebration she sang and took photos with them.
At the last night of the camp a farewell event was held and the best groups were rewarded. The best thing is that most of the Jordanian team was rewarded.
Finally, Caritas Peace camp gave us a good experiment that we are going to use it in our lives. We get benefit from every moment we spent in the camp. It shows us the important role that we should play in the life of these disadvantaged and abandoned children's. 
One of the important things that I learnt from the camp is patience and how to deal with the children's. That experience taught me how to accept challenges and how to solve problems. The time I spent in caritas was very precious and I will not forget this experience. I owe to everyone participated in the camp because I got useful things from them.

First of all I would like to praise all those who have contributed to organize this camp in Lebanon, such as donors, volunteers, coordinators and everyone thanks to whom the success has been achieved this year.

As I have noticed through all the events that took place during this camp, huge efforts and money have been invested.

Caritas Camp this year was able to reach the set objective, as it did every year, but this year available means were more advantageous such as the premises and unprecedented visits. 

Regarding the impact upon the children, I would like to share my opinion following my own observations, especially concerning the Yemeni group the example of which can be applied to all the other children: 

1-     The integration of those kids with other people in the camp (children, counselors, visitors…) was very fast which was really surprising given the environment those children came from and the lifestyle they were leading, I couldn't imagine they would so easily become mixed with the new environment, and people they saw for the first time and barely knew.

2-     The fact of accepting the others; regardless of their color, race, nationality and religion, in spite of the climate of violence they were used to.  I have witnessed that they built strong ties with their Christian and Sudanese companions since the very first days which was really exceptional compared to previous camps.

3-     Overcoming the barriers between girls and boys, building friendship and watching one over the other was amazing. 

4-     Broadening the horizons of those children, changing their perception of life and getting them used to a new way of life they didn't know before and will hopefully stick to further on.

Following these observations, I can assert that the camp has reached all the objectives.   

I would like to stress on some important details related to this last summer Peace Camp such as the visits of some ambassadors and officials who came to see our children which made them feel important and gave them certain individual value.  One of those personalities was the ambassador of Yemen in Lebanon who met with the children and spoke to them which made them very happy and proud; contrary to prejudices they had that people avoided them because they came from an isolated area where many diseases are spread.

Finally, I would like to seize the opportunity to thank a lot all those who have contributed to this camp; namely Mr. Stefan Maier who has offered Yemeni children the chance to take part in it which will definitely improve their life and make them regain importance they have lost due to difficult circumstances they were victims of. I would also like to express my gratitude for having got the chance myself to learn the meaning of sacrifice and patience for magnificent and non-material purposes which is helping the others, sometimes at one's own expenses.

Thank you Stefan, thank you for everything you have so generously given.

I hope this camp will continue through years and embrace more and more children, in order to sow peace.

Saleh Yasin Al Qubati

Head of Yemeni Delegation at the International Caritas Peace Camp 2009