By: P. Alpha Mazenga, svd
With the concern about the promotion of harmonious and integral development of the children, ORPER has made of the Holiday Camp, one of its most important activities of psychological accompaniment. Since 2010, it is organized by our department of the educational animation, in ORPER’s educational farm.
The holiday camp has the following objectives: to help the children come out of their daily stress by means of fun animation, in all its forms; a psychological accompaniment for future re-socialization; interiorizing of human virtues in the children; to get rid of trauma from the victims of violations by adults; to offer them happiness, affection… that is, to make it a moment of intense cultural, educative, fan and sporty activities.
In 2015, two camps took place: the one from June 22 to 29 was open for boys in the locality and from August 1 to 11, it was organized for boys and girls from boarding schools as well as girls from the open environment. In total 269 children benefited from the activities. Twenty adults accompanied them during the animation services, cooking and at the infirmary.
The theme selected for the Camp this year was: “education for new citizenship”. The theme was chosen, bearing in mind that all these children have been separated from their respective families, and are living with stress in a problematic country. The objective intended was to bring back the hope that they can live a peaceful life.
In fact, everyone laments the loss of identity in the children who are separated from their families to live on the streets. But only a few determine with precision the nature of the elements of identity lost or that are being lost. On our part, as the actors of reeducation and reinsertion in situations of family breakage, this loss is more related to the behavior of these children that have a tendency of inverting all that is positive and a value diligently accepted by us. May be this can also be seen at the very origin of the social rejection and exclusion.
