Global Camps Africa
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Affiliate Information
Global Camps Africa helps to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS in South Africa by empowering youths to make healthy life decisions that drastically lower the risk of contracting the disease. This is done primarily through Camp Sizanani, a camp run by the organization that is attended by some 300 low-income, disadvantaged children each year. In addition to typical summer camp activities such as sports, theater, and nature classes, campers attend a Life Skills class each day, where they are taught by speciality skilled instructors on a host of topics conducive to acquiring the knowledge necessary to make healthy life decisions in a decidedly tough environment.
Global Camps Africa also runs Kids Clubs, which are groups led by trained counselors that meet on Saturdays back in the campers’ hometowns to reinforce lessons learned at camp and to provide a safe, fun place for kids who are alumni of Camp Sizanani to meet and to receive counseling. Global Camps Africa also runs a Counselor Training Program that equips counselors to handle the special issues faced by disadvantaged youths across South Africa. In addition to working with counselors who work at Camp Sizanani, the organization also trains counselors who work at two other children’s camps in South Africa and one in Uganda.
Students attend Camp Sizanani – “Sizanani” is Zulu for “help each other” – for 10 days, where 30 trained counselors and specialists meet in small groups with the children to cover issues such as HIV/AIDS awareness, dating, sexuality, physical and psychological abuse, gender bias, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and nutrition. Counselors focus on enhancing campers’ self esteem; most campers leave with a newfound sense of dignity and self respect that enables them to make healthy decisions back at home. Many campers have gone on become counselors at Camp Sazanani and to be leaders in their communities.
Kids Clubs meetings for alumni of campers are uniquely organized in recognition of the camp’s inability to meet all the life skills of the campers. They have proven to be a breeding ground of leadership and community involvement, as many Kids Clubs have developed their own volunteer programs which engage in civic activities and are a powerful force for good in the Soweto township. Kids Clubs also sponsor recreational activities such as soccer teams and dance groups. Kids Clubs continue to nurture returning campers while also providing an outlet for the creativity and newfound respect for community, family, and self that returning campers possess.
Affiliate History
Global Camps Africa was founded in 2004 by Phil Lilienthal, an American who has worked in development and with youth camps for over 40 years. Moved by the plight of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where one in ten persons is affected, Mr. Lilienthal created Global Camps Africa and started Camp Sizanani in an effort to use the methodology of residential camps as a tool to make children aware of HIV/AIDS and to effect a change in behavior and attitude among the youth. Campers come predominantly from families affected by HIV/AIDS in the poor and exceedingly violent township of Soweto, which is near Johannesburg.
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- Location: SOUTH AFRICA / Southern Africa
- Language(s): IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, English, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, other indigenous languages
- Currency: Rand
- Religion(s): Christianity, Anglicanism, Islam
- GDP per capita: USA: $47,400 | SOUTH AFRICA: $10,000
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