Camp UNITE (pronounced you-knee-tay) is an educational summer
camp that equips young Togolese with the life skills they need to overcome the
challenges of growing-up in a developing nation. Many young people in
Togo lack essential knowledge about health, gender equity, and the importance
of education. Others are facing the difficulties of adolescence familiar
to young people around the world. Camp UNITE has created a curriculum
designed to give campers essential facts about health, wellness and education,
but also the teamwork, communication, and leadership skills needed to put their
knowledge into practice. (Source: www.unitefoundation.org)
Okay, so that first paragraph was copied directly from the website, but
it’s an impeccable description of camp if I do say so myself. Instead of
writing about my experience at this camp, I’ve decided to try and do a photo-blog
(internet connection permitting) documenting my week as a camp UNITE counselor.
Just to preface, I was one of the two male counselors for the group of female
students. Along with 6 Togolese and 5 other American counselors, we coordinated
our week of camp for 40 Togolese girls. These girls came from all over the
country and represented approximately 18 different ethnic groups! As
counselors, we were each responsible for our building during the week as well
as running the educational sessions and challenges during the week. It was an
exhausting experience, but I would do it again in a heartbeat!
“UNITE’s theme is ‘Les jeunesses sont l’aveir du Togo’ which translates
to ‘The youth are the future of Togo!”
“The primary theme of the camp, in addition to unifying the nation, is
called “Modele du Pont” aka “The bridge model.” The goal is to teach the life
skills required to succeed in life given that you already have the required
knowledge. Some of these skills include: self confidence, responsibility,
independence, and communication. Each activity at camp was designed with the ultimate
goal of equipping these youth with the building blocks on the path towards a
healthy life. Acknowledging that failure and obstacles are also a part of life,
a fictional character named Paggi was created to represent these obstacles.
More on him later….”
“Each building chose an identity (my building was Les Etoiles du Togo,
or the “stars of Togo”) and the girls were also split up into 4 activity groups
so that they would get the chance to interact with many other campers. One of
UNITE’s primary goals is to unify a sometimes fragmented society due to the
amount of diverse ethnic groups. A theme we clarified on the first day of camp
was that Togo can not succeed with out the aid of everyone from every region as
to encourage the campers to work together and learn about each other.”
“In addition to the education sessions on gender equality,
sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS, child trafficking, business skills, and self
confidence, the campers all participated in challenges geared towards promoting
teamwork and communication – skills that are sorely underrepresented in the
Togolese school system."
"In this photo me and my co-facilitator Malika running our session about HIV/AIDS. Our primary focus was getting the campers to understand the technical information about HIV and what it means since they don’t really learn about it in school and ultimately ways to curtail its propagation in Togolese society. Malika is a 3rd year sociology student at the University of Kara, another large city in Togo.”
“Paggi is a character at camp who pretends to be a mad
sorcerer/village demon. He represents the obstacles we all face which keep us
from living a healthy life. He would ask the girls questions about what they
learned and why they thought it was important in a radically different way than
they are used to in school. Many of the girls were terrified of him on the
first day, but by the end of the week no one was afraid of speaking to him. Paggi
was unveiled at the end of the camp as a previous camper for 4 years ago who is
a university student now studying law in Lomé.”
“Togolese love to act out scenarios and it is one of the
best ways of engaging a group of individuals, no mater what the age. During my
HIV/AIDS session, we had two sketches: one depicting the way HIV leads AIDS and
another talking about the effects of discrimination and stigmatization on
people living with HIV.”
“Paggi would shuffle around from group to group trying to
discourage the campers from achieving the tasks/challenges. The ultimate goal
was to get the campers to stand up for themselves in the face of adversity –
something they all learned to do by the end of the camp. It was amazing seeing
girls who came in incredibly shy and reserved end the week as some of the most
jubilant and outspoken campers.”
“During the session of child trafficking we had a guest
speaker come in from a nearby village who had been trafficked as a child to a
nearby country for 1 year. She spoke about her hardships and some of the awful
things she saw and experience. For me this was a fascinating session as I had
only ever had experience with testimonies or memoirs about the subject.
Listening to this woman speak was captivating for everyone in the audience.”
“Sex-ed is severely lacking in the Togolese education
system. In fact, most people have NO idea who their bodies work or why even
some of the most basic things like puberty happen. One of the most popular
sessions was the sex-ed session where participants had the opportunity to walk
through an actual “vagina” to see how the entire process worked. They were also
given the opportunity to ask questions in a safe and supportive environment
related to sexual health and development from a clinician.”
“No sexual health talk is complete without the classic
condom demonstration. Many people here know the fundamentals of using a condom,
but with an army of wooden penises we were able to give all the participants
the opportunity to practice putting on condoms. I also showed the campers how
it is possible to stretch a latex condom over a fully extended forearm – a
trick that went over very well I might add.”
“The challenges built upon themselves in a way that mirrored
the growing bonds between the campers. In order to promote better
communication, teamwork, and leadership, the challenge activities were designed
to have the campers work together to solve a task. Here they are trying to move
a bucket full of water without touching it. it’s a lot harder than it looks
here!”
“Of course, no summer camp can be complete without games and
songs. We did plenty of that during the course of the week, breaking out every
so often in song was just another day in the life at Camp UNITE.”
“Another challenge where the girls had to move themselves
from one side of a net to another without touching the string. This was the
last challenge and in many ways is like the “trust fall” activity. My team
succeeded with flying colors despite the deterring presence of Paggi!”
“Again, songs and dances were standard fare at Camp UNITE.
I’m still humming them to myself a week later…”
“Je suis jenue, je suis l’avenir du Togo – I am young, I am
the future of Togo!”
“On the last day of camp we had a parade where we went out into
the community and practiced our skills. The campers came up with skits and
dances demonstrating what they had learned throughout the week in terms of
technical skills and cross-cultural information. The motivation behind this was
to encourage the campers to return to their villages and become youth leaders –
sharing the information they learned at camp to develop their communities. This
was one of my favorite parts of camp, as you can tell!”
My building “Les Etoiles du Togo!”
“Me and one of my favorite counterparts, Sibabi. He was one
of the primary Togolese counterparts/organizers for the project and I’m lucky
enough to have him as a primary work partner at post. He is an awesome guy!”
On the last night of camp, we had a candlelight ceremony
where all of the girl were given a chance to talk about their experiences at
camp and how it affected them. Listening to girls open up and express some of
their innermost feelings of not feeling self-worth until coming to camp or not
realizing how much potential they had to become anything they wanted in life
was an amazing, and tear-jerking, experience. One girl even said how she wasn’t
going to continue school until she came to UNITE and learned about how much she
was capable of if she really tried. It was a beautiful end to the week and I
was really touched to see the effects of just one week of camp on these girls.
Seeing the fruits of your labor is not really common in Togo as much of the
work we lacks the concrete/immediate feedback we may desire. Nevertheless, I am
confident that this camp makes a difference for Togolese kids by giving them a
unique experience where they feel special, powerful, and important. I strongly
believe in teaching youth in order to achieve national development and I can’t
wait to be a part of this camp again next year!
