Camps & day camps

Summer Camp in Narewka "05

1narewka05This year Summer Camp for children from orphanages and dysfunctional families was held in Narewka on 1st - 13th July. There were 58 participants including 38 children from orphanages in Warsaw, Białystok and Suprasl and from Diamond's Clubs in Warsaw and Bialystok. Also there were 20 people of staff including teachers and kitchen workers.

 

2narewka05Children participating in the camp were 6 - 18 years of age. So it was a great difference of age, but thanks to small groups we managed to create family atmosphere. Each group consisted of 2 to 5 children. It helped to have better contact between the children and the teachers.

The weather was great so every day we could go to the river. Of course we have also organized various kinds of activities. There were Explorer's Meetings among them, so the Bible lessons in three age groups. During those meetings children discovered important spiritual truths, based on the story of Joseph. At the entrance to every meeting there were some sport activities, which illustrated theme sentences of each meeting. We also had games, plays, crafts, art workshops and so on in our program.


3narewka05Children willingly participated in the Breaking the Narewka Records. They concerned various sport disciplines. We ended every day with the Evening of Surprises, which were prepared by each group. Important moments of those evenings were stories told with the use of Muppets and of course the singing.

We are grateful to God for His care from the very first day to the very last. Every day we could feel His presence and blessings.


Working with children from orphanages and dysfunctional families is a great challenge. It requires full engagement and openness to the children's needs. And what they specially need is acceptance and love, but also to be noticed and their needs to be understood.

4narewka05Among children, who came to our camp for the first time was Ewelina from the orphanage in Warsaw. Ewelina is 12 years old. She was closed and sad. She had her eyes and head in the ground all the time. We found out that she comes from a family with many children, where violence and aggression was something very natural. Children were bitten up and abused. The parents, alcoholics have been taken the parental rights away and they all ended up in the orphanage. Ewelina was very distrustful towards adults. She has a very low self esteem. She thinks that her art work or crafts are all ugly and worthless.

5narewka05But she was, as the other children, surrounded by love and kindness. Showing any friendly feelings made Ewelina shy in the beginning. She was distrustful towards people that were kind to her. But when she discovered that those attitudes were authentic and sincere she started to smile and look into other's eyes. Afterwards, she was happy to participate in every activity. She was glad to see that others notice and appreciate her art work and sport abilities. At the end of the camp there were a lot of tears, because of the separation. We will keep in touch with our pupils during school year too.

Almost all the children asked about next year's camp even before this one was finished.

 

 

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BANK ACCOUNT:
Bank PEKAO S.A. Al.Jerozolimskie 65/79, 00-950 Warszawa, POLAND
SWIFT CODE: PKOPPLPW
Chrześcijańskie Centrum Edukacyjne "Diament"
23 1240 1066 1111 0000 0006 3946