Team members' feedback
Nisreen, Syria
Children are the key
Children are the Key" is a title of an information paragraph on the International Caritas Peace Camp website. I first came across this title after meeting with Mr. Stefan Maier, the Initiator and Director of the Peace Camp, in 2009. At the time, I was very eager to volunteering and especially volunteering in a place, somehow, located in Africa. I had also been looking for the kind of opportunity that could give me the sincere meaning of real humanitarian work.
Throughout my conversation with Mr. Maier, he came to mention his "Peace Camp" project. He talked about how it had been organized, when and where the events had taken place and other closely related details. All these topics were of great importance to listen to as they gave me quite an idea on how the work had been conducted and improved throughout the years.
However, what really grabbed my attention was the explanation related to the criteria of choosing participating children, why children and the basic aim of the project. Mr. Maier carried on with his explanation and I was listening with widely open ears: "Children must come from very poor environments; they have to be the poorest of the poor" he said, adding: "and have never had the chance of seeing a different country from their own. These are the strictest criteria". He finished firmly. And, of course, I did not need much explanation on why children had been the targeted category as most of my work passion had been focused on the poorest of the poor of children knowing that this particular group of generation plays a key role in determining any country's future and the general mentality that controls the publics' ways of thinking, approaching and communicating with the wide open world!
Children with such harsh-life conditions are usually spread on a wide extent throughout the Middle East countries. Everyone knows what kind of an important role the Middle Eastern people play in improving the World Peace future. Thus, focusing on the oncoming generations can be very critical and of enormous importance in achieving such a target keeping in mind that children from poor backgrounds have never had the means of receiving proper education or fair attention to how their ways of thinking are usually built up and arisen. That's why giving children, with such conditions, an opportunity of spending a "never-forgettable" three-week holiday in another country conducted with lots of fun, activities and close focus on spreading "Peace Principles" among them was the kind of project that really suited my passionate volunteering desires!
"Yes," I said to myself "this is one of the missions that is really worthy to trigger my eagerness for!" And thus I started the trip of gathering as much information as possible about such an outstanding project, in addition to the journey of convincing Mr. Maier of my abilities of handling any kind of hard work I might face.
So, Egypt 2010 was my first station of joining the International Caritas Peace Camp. It was my first experience and I was assigned to handle a group of ten wonderful children coming from different nationalities, religion backgrounds and, obviously, mentalities.
The camp experience, as if it was a never-ended colorful journey in the "Wonder Land", gave all the participating children wide opportunities of expressing their identities, feelings and thoughts through the creative hand-crafts, sport, singing and national evenings activities. And, of course, I will never forget to mention that such poor children had the chance of having a balanced and healthy diet for, maybe, the first time in their lives.
Being a "group leader" was much of a rewarding experience. It made me feel the real meaning of being a responsible parent of ten children. I had to pay attention and care for all their life details as if they were of my own. I and the children from my group, in addition to my wonderful responsibility partner "Annerose from Austria" lived as one family during the camp period. We laughed together, ate together and shared all the exciting and challenging sport competitions moments.
Children were going ahead and improving in no time. And in spite of all the different religion, dialect and nationality barriers, they achieved a great success in communicating with each other, making new friendships and, precisely, living in "peace". However, what was, in my opinion, the most outstanding result of this camp is the fact that there were several peace training sessions conducted by a professional trainer. Such training sessions played a key role in planting the "peace spirit" among this oncoming generation of children. This result makes us hope a lot on the fact that children are always able to spread such spirit and pass it on to their friends who have not had the chance of experiencing coming to the camp. We also should not forget that this camp experience is and will always be the children's most precious and unforgettable adventure that will be carried in their hearts and, in return, will carry the "peace principles" along with it and, hopefully, will affect their ways of teaching their children the real meaning of "living in peace" with all human beings regardless of their colors, nationalities, religions or any other kinds of discriminations.
Nisreen Daka
Group Leader
International Caritas Peace Camp
Egypt 2010.
Mary, Egypt
I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the concept and values of the International Peace camp , which cared mainly during this year about 98 children from 8 countries " Lebanon , Syria , Jordan , Egypt , Iraq , Palestine , Sudan and Yemen " . This is my second participation in this camp, the 1st one was in Lebanon 2009.
Caritas International Peace camp gives us a module in which how can people come together under the umbrella of peace , it included a package of intervention programs helped the children to work , play , eat , sing , dance and share everything together. During the first day of the camp the children were separated into 10 groups, each group consisted of 10 children form different nationalities, I was responsible of a group. Regarding my comments in the camp;
The camp accommodation:
Tito convent is a very suitable place for gathering all the children and leaders, it designed to help the discipline and commitment.
The daily schedule of the camp:
At least 98% from the planned programs were implemented during the camp duration; this is due to the commitment of the participants as well as the leaders.
The distribution of the children was very good and adopting the child needs.
Specific topics were discussed with the children such as; the child rights, their self hygiene, how to deal with others, how they know themselves, building peace, helping others and dealing with anger.
Each group had a daily specific charge, this component helped the children to get the team work spirit and to feel that there is the something called gender equality "the boy and the girl are equal in everything", and they should help their mothers.
The star of the day : every day of the camp a child was selected to be a star of the day , this depending on a selection criteria , I think it was a good opportunity for the kids to feel the loyalty and belonging to the camp, and also showed the spirit of fair competition among the children .
The cultural visits:
The children were motivated and very happy during the cultural visits to the citadel, El Montaza palace, Alexandria bibliotheca, the Alexandria museum, the pyramids, the Pharaonic village and the Cairo museum ….etc. Through these visits the children got a lot of information about Egypt. My recommendation is that the duration of the trip to Cairo needs to be 3 days.
The entertainment visits:
We had a tour in a boat in the Nile and we went to Taverna Aqua Park, Sporting club, we went to Bianchi beach also we went twice to amusement park (Karamentas in Alexandria and Dream Park in Cairo ". It was good opportunity for the children to swim and play together.
The sport and games:
It was a good component for making the children play together and win in sportsmanship, but what I am recommended that we have to explore new games especially for girls in order to make them like to play and participate.
Songs and dancing:
It was excellent program, which helps the children to overcome their diversities "color, religion and traditions", also we spend a good day in Monastery of St. Catherine in dancing together the children and the leaders.
National evenings:
The children of each country had the possibility one evening to represent their country "culture, tradition, food, dance and songs" in front of all the camp participants. Through these evenings the children got some knowledge about the traditions and heritage of different countries.
The international evening:
During the second last day of the camp an international evening was held inside the convent, in which all the camp participants present their countries in front of all the event attendees. It was a good opportunity for the children to be self-confident and have a closer relationship with their colleagues in the camp.
Finally the international peace camp gives me a good experience and I learned from it how to deal with the children and how to solve the faced problems. I got a lot of benefits from every second in the camp, also I learned a lot from everyone participated in the camp "The camp responsible, the nuns, the old and the new leaders", I really appreciate their efforts and support.
Mary Ramzy Farag
Caritas - Egypt, Alexandria
