see how it was

Wanna see how it was?? Check this out: http://flickr.com/photos/11342331@N05/show/

So it was...

"Leaders for Tommorow" Red Cross Summer Camp, 2007 edition started with... the rain :) Ok, we have a long tradition of meeting it everytime we have the camp, so we were not surprised to see and feel it again. What we have not expected was to feel it during the whole week... this was a big surprise!!

85 youngsters, 15 to 29 years old, from 13 branches and sub-branches of the Romanian Red Cross (Braila, Botosani, Cluj, Giurgiu, Iasi, Maramures, Medias, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava, Tulcea, Vrancea, Vulcan), 5 youth organizations (Close to You Foundation – Iasi, Voluntary Centres in Resita and Rasinari, Sinergii Medias, Nova Cultural Bacau) and youth from Galati, Ocna Mures and Cluj Napoca met on Steaza Valley, close to Rasinari village, between 29 July and 5th August, to spend one week of nonformal education in order to become better leaders.

They have participated to common activities, to discover Principles (of the Red Cross Movement, but humanity, as well), to gain leadership abillities or to improve the networking system.

This activities were funny, but serios, and participants showed a lot of creativity, team work and enthusiasm.

The exercises were followed by debriefing, and, of course, sweet "motivation" moments :)

Also, coming from different organizations, they had a space to present themselves and their organizations, a very useful exchange of information and experiences.

During the week, the participants were split according to their interest in 4 workshops.

Those in the art club gained knowledge about forum theatre or theatre of the oppressed. They learnt about use of art in social work, characteristics of forum theatre, the specific characters, how to "dress" a character, and created a play to present in Sibiu.

The creative peer-education workshop brought together all those interested in disseminating especially informations about health education to their peers.

This year the accent was on finding creative methods, more than on informations transmitted.

The participants of green first aid workshop had to face a big challenge: to find a connection between first aid and ecological behaviour and to clean the area close to the camp locations from the "proofs" of human beings who visited the location before us.

It was probably the most "technical" workshop, in which the youth created waste bins, with ecological messages, and used their skills to provide the camp with wood for the camp fires.

The persons in games for volunteers workshop have much fun playing all the time :) Actually, that is why they attended it... to learn about use of games in motivating volunteers and to experience as much games as possible.

This was not easy, due to the weather, but it was a beautiful surprise that they adjusted to the conditions and created a nice book of games, plus a camp song to entertain us during the evening events.

The most expected day of the camp was Friday, when all the participants came in the centre of Sibiu, to present their work to their peers. It was a very creative activity, where they had to put together specific moments of their workshops.

They acted, debated, sang and played with curious walkers... they made a nice suprise to everybody being on Nicolae Balcescu street in the midday :)

And, of course, we had pizza, a tour of Sibiu medieval city with the help of the beautiful volunteers from the local branch and a couple of hours as free time. Even the rain stopped on Friday, to let us enjoy the Big Scene!

The 2007 edition was organised by Romanian Red Cross Sibiu, in partnership with the Youth Centre in Rasinari, financed by the Youth Agency and was supported by the Hall of Rasinari, Emergency Situations Inspectorate Sibiu, Rangers Inspectorate Sibiu and the sponsors:

Danone, Agromec Avrig, Elio Prod, Extrasib, Icrasib, Novalis, Romado, Simonis, Simpa, Sitemani, Tarpi, Venturelli.

Special partner: Sibiu - European Cultural Capital Association.

All good stories must have a happy end: we are very glad to present you the leaders :)

here it comes!