Camp Glow

This weekend I participated in the facilitator training for the Camp Glow program, which will happen in April. Camp Glow is a 6 day camp for Namibian students in middle and high school. The theme is youth empowerment, and each day has a theme: health, character building, career and futures, leadership, gender equality and team building and self discovery. The camp provides a unique experience for the students to explore themselves, build confidence, and to chart a course for their future. For many of them, it will be the first time that they are in a big city. (Last year, a group of the campers wanted to ride up and down the escalators in the mall on an outing because they had never seen one before and were absolutely fascinated by them!)

The impact that the camp has on Namibian youth is tremendous. Many campers from previous years return to be facilitators; I was very impressed with the group of Namibian facilitators that were at the training. The power in this type of work is the ripple effect; each camper, facilitator and volunteer has a sphere of influence. So as we embark on this journey together, there is no way to measure the positive influence that it is having on Namibia and the world.

For more information, here is the Camp Glow website:

http://campglownamibia.weebly.com/

If you are interested in supporting our Camp Glow, you can donate here:

http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/camp-glow-2013

I am including some photos from the training below:

Our training was held at Katutura Youth Enterprise Center (KAYEC). Katutura is a large location (township) surrounding the city center of Namibia’s capitol, Windhoek.

In Katutura, fences are necessary…

I loved this shot of morning sun bursting through the trees at the center…

We had fun camping and “roughing at” at KAYEC:

Our training concluded with the “trust fall” activity where someone falls backwards into the outstretched arms of support people below.

The training was a success, and I cannot wait for CAMP GLOW! Stay tuned!