Camper Selection

Choosing which kids we want to invite to camp is a very difficult process.  Each volunteer works with hundreds, if not thousands, of students in their towns, yet we can only bring two each to camp.  In order to get the most return from the experience, we look for children who have strong English-language skills, leadership qualities, and the motivation to share what they learned with their communities when they return home.

For this camp, we decided to use a standardized selection process to ensure fairness.  First, interested students submit a written application, and then are interviewed by Peace Corps volunteers and school directors.  PCV Eric "George" Woodbury in Sebeta shares his experience selecting campers below:

Picking students to attend was a difficult task. To add objectivity, I asked PCV Gilliane McShane of Tullubollo fame to come and interview with me. I knew student academic performance from class, but we were looking for well-rounded candidates with leadership potential. Meeting someone new in an interview was a clue as to how they would embrace the camp experience.

Of course, the student who listed me as his “role model” in his written application was tough to overlook. But, I only had one vote. The School Director knew the kids best and cast tiebreakers. He did agree that we should take a 7^th grader who was the most active in the English Club. Rewarding effort is part of American culture that we are trying to instill here.

What struck me was how little the students had traveled outside their village of perhaps 5,000. We picked one student who had spent two months in Addis Abeba last summer. He is a solid student and very outgoing. We had to consider downside risk- we didn’t want anyone getting homesick.

I was also taken by the preferred vocations of the candidates. Almost all wanted to be a doctor or a teacher in order to help others. No one talked about gaining wealth. One girl said she wanted to break the gender stereotype and be a butcher- she is our alternate candidate.

When I announced who was picked there was not one complaint! The students all seemed genuinely happy for the ones selected. What a breath of fresh air! In the Northeast U.S., parents might interrogate you about why their student wasn't selected. There is a lot of respect for teachers and elders (which I love!) here, and I think that may be a good thing. It was a very positive experience for all.  

Camp and Your Taxes

Camp Finance Officer Ashley Moulder elaborates on the grant writing process Peace Corps volunteers undergo to secure funding for camp: 

So, as anyone who's ever run a camp or other event knows, these awesome fun filled days take money. Now, as I have yet to find the money tree (blasted map reading skills), we have to get our funds for camp from a different source.

The majority of our funds come from something called a VAST grant. These grants can be used for a variety of different things, but we use them mostly for camp. Grant money has to come from somewhere, and ours come from PEPFAR funds.

PEPFAR stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and was started by President Bush in 2003 and renewed in 2008. The current structure of the program has countries forming partnerships with PEPFAR agencies to prevent and treat HIV/ AIDS. While the majority of the funds go to providing treatment, our camp is one of the ways PEPFAR helps to prevent AIDS.

Because of this funding, our camp has to have 51% of our programming aimed at achieving the PEPFAR goals and objectives. This means our camp focuses on life skills and AIDS prevention. But, as we focus on these very serious topics, we are also very serious about having fun.

One of the ways we meet our PEPFAR obligations is through gender empowerment and youth leadership programs. This is another avenue where we find support. Though often not monetary in nature, organizations and communities throughout the country provide invaluable resources and support. This helps to keep the actual costs of camp down.

Ethiopia has one if the largest numbers of nonprofit and aid organizations working within its borders in Africa. Out here in the western part of the country, we have lots of regional offices for UN agencies and other organizations.  All of these help to support our camp through donated time, training resources, and expertise. Sometimes they also donate materials for the different sessions.

Perhaps the most valuable resource for camp is our partnership organizations. This year, we are lucky enough to have two partners for camp - Mettu College of Teachers' Education and Mettu University. The college has agreed to provide the space where we will host the camp, and the University had agreed to provide the necessary materials to house the campers for the week. Both institutions have offered the use of their staff and vehicles.

Finally, we are lucky enough to have friends and family from all around the world who donate materials for us to use at camp.

As complex as this all sounds, we are able to do so much with only a small amount of money.  Last year’s camp cost about $5,000 and we expect this year’s week-long camp for 30 students to run the American tax payers $6,000 via PEPFAR.

Without all of these different partners helping us, we wouldn't be able to put on such an amazing, fun, and educational event.  We will do everything we can to make sure your investment in Ethiopia’s children pays off.

Wishlist!

As mentioned before, we are asking our friends and families in America to send us some items to help with camp.  All of the big things we need are available in Ethiopia and will be paid for from the grant that enables us to do this project, but we would like a some small gifts for the kids that are novelties here.  The camp is going to be FIFA World Cup themed, and we are doing projects about global citizenship, so we are requesting small flag and other things to help create an international flair.

We also want your personal involvement with the students.  You can post in our Facebook group or email us, but if you prefer to send cards or physical pictures, that would also be wonderful.

Mail to Mettu can take a long time!  Sometimes packages make it here in 3 weeks, sometimes it can be more than 3 months.  If you are sending something for camp, please think ahead so we can receive it in time.

Please send all packages and letters to our camp co-director in Mettu:

Ella Lehmann

P.O. Box 440

Ilubabor Zone, Oromia

Mettu, Ethiopia  

As so, without further ado, here is our wishlist:

American flag bananas

FIFA whistles

Water bottles, Nalgene

American flags

Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Cote de Ivorie -  flags, stickers (students will be split into groups representing one of these countries)

Marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey chocolate for S'mores (we might just eat these ourselves before camp starts...)

FIFA soccer balls

Magazines and newspapers (for making collages and piñatas)

Video messages/letters/pictures

Art supplies

Water balloons

Those little strappy backpacks you get at conferences

Anything else you think would make the camp special is great, but check with us first before you send it just in case....

Thank you!

A Look Back at Last Year's Camp GLOW

This blog post about last years camp was originally published by Ashley Moulder under the title "Girls Girls Girls!!" on her blog.  Click here to see the original post with pictures.

So today was the last day of Jimma Camp GLOW 2013.  For those of you who don't know, camp GLOW is a summer camp style training Peace Corps does all over the world to help with youth development.  It stands for Girls Leading Our World, and is aimed at high school aged girls.  We cover a wide variety of topics, from leadership, to HIV/AIDS, to relationships, and everything in between.  The goals is to give these girls focused individual attention that will improve their confidence and to help them learn some valuable skills that will help them to be leaders for the rest of their lives.

I was the director for the camp in Jimma this year, and let me tell you, it was exhausting.  However, the week was great, and the girls loved it.  Here are some pictures of what we did...

So we had a leadership session where we talked about how leadership works.  We talked about why being a leader is important, and how you might be a leader.  Then, they were split into 5 groups, and each group was asked to come up with a human machine.  This machine could do anything, but each girl had to be part of it, and each part had to be explained.  They were allowed to figure it out any way they saw fit.  So, there were lots of great machines, but my two favorite were the group that did the boat (left), and the group that did the grass house (right).  After they presented, we talked about who were the leaders in their groups.  At first they named the most vocal, but as we talked about how being a leader might mean coming up with the idea or helping to make an idea happen, they started to talk about how each one of them played a role in leading the group.  

We also had a volunteerism day where we discussed the importance of volunteering in your community, and why service is so important.  We had 2 university students who were helping us out, so they did a lot of talking about why they saw volunteering as so important.  Then, we took a tour of the Jimma University radio station.  They interviewed 3 of the girls and one of the PCVs about camp and Peace Corps.  The radio station is completely volunteer based, so they got to see and talk to others about volunteering.

We also had a lot of sessions about HIV/AIDS prevention and other types of disease prevention.  We tried not to do too many lecture style sessions, so most of our sessions were active, involving lots of group participation.  We always had some sort of sport or outside activity, but we also did something called Grass Roots Soccer, which uses soccer as a means to teach HIV/AIDS and Malaria. 



We also had the girls competing each day to be 'Queens' for the day, and they got to wear these crowns during lunch and dinner.  It was a lot of fun, and the girls were ecstatic.  They loved all of the activities and getting to know each other.  It was an amazing experience, and these girls are some of the most incredible people I have met.  I have no doubt they will rule the world someday.

Anyways, here's our camp, along with their groups.  Definitely a week to remember!

Welcome to Camp G2LOW!

Take a moment and remember the first time your arrived at summer camp.  You drive through the rustic gates of some compound named after an imaginary Indian tribe or a forest animal.  You see rows of log cabins and areas set aside for water sports, arts and crafts, and singing songs or performing skits.   Maybe this was the first time you were away from your parents and home.  Maybe you were excited.  Maybe you didn't really want to be there.  Maybe you plotted with your bunk mates on how exactly to sneak into the canteen or girls' dormitories after lights out.  Probably you learned something new, and made best friends that would last a lifetime - or at least a summer.  

Whatever your memories, it is clear that summer camps are an important part of the American experience.  So much of our literature and films use these settings to discuss growing up and finding your place in the world.  Children need a safe opportunity to leave their parents behind, step out of their comfort zones, and practice to become the future leaders of tomorrow.

That is why this summer, 11 Peace Corps volunteers from around the Oromia region of Ethiopia are organizing a summer camp in the town of Mettu.  We will partner with local teachers and institutions to re-create our favorite summer experience for thirty 8th and 9th grade girls and boys from across the region.

The name of our camp is Camp G²LOW, which stands for "Girls and Guys Leading Our World."  Using the theme of the FIFA World Cup, we will create a week of activities designed to teach the future leaders of Ethiopia about self-confidence, volunteerism, global citizenship, health and nutrition, and English as a world language.

We need your help to make this camp a success.  Over the next few months, we will be gathering supplies and support from our friends and families back in America.  Some of the items we want are hard to find in Ethiopia (S'mores anyone?).  We will be posting a wish list of items for activities and would appreciate your gifts and packages.

Even more important than the stuff, we want children at our camp to hear your voices.  Please join our camp event on Facebook and lend your words of encouragement to our campers.  Feel free to post written, audio, or voice messages for us to share around the campfire (and LCD projector).  Maybe as you help us to share the largeness of the world with our students, you will learn a little bit more about its depth yourself.

Check back here regularly as we post updates about our camp planning process, bios of camp staff, and also pictures and updates from the camp itself.  Mettu Camp G²LOW kicks off June 29^th and continues until July 5^th.  We hope to see you there!