Youth from all over Rwanda

In the camp, there were 20 youth representatives from each of the 7 OVC- projects in Rwanda. OVC stands for ‘Orphans and other Vulnerable Children’, and are projects that get support from for instance the donor program in Norwegian Red Cross. Most of the youth represented in the camp, had got support from Red Cross over a long period, such as school material, health insurance, school fees and mosquito nets.

On the camp, there were also two volunteers from each project, as well as staff. – The good thing about this camp, is that the youth get to know each other, and get the opportunity to share their experiences and challenges, says Robert Muyenzi, OVC- coordinator in Gisagara district.

”Head, shoulder, knees and toes”

The days started with gymnastics from 06.00 to 07.00 A.M., led by me, with some help from the staff. It was challenging to lead 150 youngsters in outdoor gymnastic. The solution was jogging, group competition, “head, shoulder, knees and toes” and aerobic exercise.

After a quick shower and breakfast, the youth had workshops about different themes, for instance Red Cross history, HIV and aids, children’s rights and gender violence. After lunch it was time for sport, which also was led by me. The most popular sport was football, volleyball and games from Norway. In the evening the youth was singing and dancing.

HIV and  aids

On the second day, the theme was HIV and aids, and I got the opportunity to lead the workshop. I focused on getting the youth active, by some of the methods and activities that is used in Norwegian Red Cross Youth.  It was a big challenge because of the big group and language difficulties. But with the help from a microphone, a translator and patience, there was a good discussion about ways of transmission, symptoms, risk situations and stigma.

The day ended with a condom demonstration, that the youth thought was fun and scary. The youth thought information about HIV and aids was interesting and important, and they had a lot of questions and solutions on how HIV can be transmitted and how they can protect themselves.

Planting of coffee trees

The camp was not only about having fun and interesting workshops, we also did community work one of the days. We planted 4000 coffee trees in some hours! The trees were given by the local authority to the poor families in the village, which will start an association and earn money from the coffee. It was amazing to see 150 youth working together to help their community.