CISV Love

During the Christmas time and then the New Year’s Eve I was able to experience something extremely extraordinary. I was a participant of a CISV camp called  Youth Meeting. This was a life-changing experience during which I learnt so much about other cultures, communication, sustainable development, being eco-friendly, the refugee crisis and so much more that it is very hard to describe.

I spent this week as a delegate and representative of Poland in Graz, Austria. The other delegations where from: Great Britain, the US, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Austria and Sweden. 

It was a very developing time, because we were not only getting to know each other and building amazing new friendships but also explaining and presenting the situations in our countries in the topic of sustainable development. The theme of the camp was “Your steps matter” and therefore all the activities we did, really made me aware of the impact I and all of us have on our planet Earth. I’ve already noticed a huge change in my behavior since I had got home. I’m trying to be more eco-friendly and I truly think about little actions such as turning the light off when I leave the room, but most importantly - I’m trying to spread the awareness on other people: in my family, school, group of friends. 

I also developed my leadership skills and I used a lot of creative thinking, because during the camp we were the ones planning all the sessions for ourselves. I was put together in a planning group with four other delegates from different countries and we were planning and running activities for the rest of the participants and like that we were trying to teach them what we already know about the world issues such as global warming but in a fun and encouraging way. That’s how we all motivated each other to implement the knowledge and passion in our communities back home.

One more very important part of the camp was the Local Impact Day that the staff of our camp had organized for us. As Austria has experienced a huge wave of refugees in the past year, they wanted to teach us some more about how the whole process of staying in Europe looks for the asylum-seekers and gave us some facts and figures about this issue. All the things I found out really made me think about the refugee situation. It is not only terrifying and sad but also very emotional. I think that talking about this issue deepened my sense of empathy and putting oneself in the place of these people gave me the motivation to stand for them in our threatened and close-minded community. 

We had an opportunity to live next to the refugees this entire week. They volunteered to be the kitchen staffs on our camp and to cook for us. It was not only incredible to try the unique Syrian cuisine but also to see how friendly and normal people they are. The whole camp experience ended with the Local Impact Night when more refugees from the Refugee Center in Graz came to our campsite and we could talk to them about the reason they came to Europe, about their families back home, about their journey here but also about trivial things such us their taste in music and the beautiful places to see in their motherland. This night really made me give it a thought and encouraged me to take action in helping others. Hopefully, I will become even more of a caring person than I am now. 

This entire camp was a huge opportunity to meet new, inspiring people and change my own perspective. I look at things differently now - especially at our environment that needs to be saved and I am more than willing to help it!

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

* IDENTIFY OWN STRENGTHS AND DEVELOP AREAS FOR GROWTH·         

* DEMONSTRATE THAT CHALLENGES HAVE BEEN UNDERTAKEN, DEVELOPING NEW SKILLS IN THE PROCESS

*·SHOW COMMITTEMENT TO AND PERSEVERANCE IN CAS EXPERIENCES·  

* DEMONSTRATE ENGAGEMENT IN ISSUES OF GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE ·      

Between the 29th of September and the 1st of October, I attended a mini-camp for CISV. CISV, which stands for Children’s International Summer Villages is an organizations which aims to promote international friendship and world peace through organizing summer camps from people from all over the world. 

During the summer, I had the chance to attend one of these camps in Norway, where I made many friends from across the globe, and developed my understanding and appreciation for other cultures. In September, the local branch of CISV in Jordan, called JB Jordan, hosted a camp for Jordanian kids, and I attended to help the adults take care of the children, taking part in the planning of games, and actually interacting with the kids. 

I was under no obligation to participate in this event, however CISV has changed my life, and I felt it my duty to give back to this great organization. It was truly an amazing experience where I was able, during the day, to revisit my childhood in exciting and educational games, and to connect with my more mature side at night when the Junior Councelers, leaders, and organizers got together and spent time playing more critical and mind-proviking games! 

I need more candy to bring though. The closest thing is a 12 pack of 6 pack Oreos. Which are mostly for coercing people from all the countries into being friends with me. Just kidding, they’re also for me and my delegation.