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First Round of Multicultural Youth Camp Trainings in Cyprus a Success
03-08-2007May 2007 saw the start of a new project called Multicultural Youth Camp Trainings in Cyprus. This project is funded by the United Nations Development Programme’s initiative Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT), and is implemented by ICDI together with its partners the Cyprus College Research Center from the Greek Cypriot community, the Mediation Association from the Turkish Cypriot community, and World Child Kosova based in Kosovo. The project aims primarily to enhance the impact and sustainability of multicultural camps across the island, since these camps offer one of the few opportunities where children and young people from both communities can meet. The project consists of several activities such as trainings, seminars, conferences, and the development of a website, all with the greater goal of promoting multiculturalism in Cyprus. Furthermore the project partners will be creating an island-wide network of individuals and organizations that are actively involved in multicultural activities. The target group of the project is basically everybody on the island 15 years and older who is interested in and supportive of multiculturalism, and who is willing to actively engage in promoting such ideas. The first main activity of the project took place from 6-8 July. Around 90 multicultural youth camp coordinators, camp instructors and youth leaders (15-25 years of age) followed training in the Ledra Palace and Fullbright Centre in the UN buffer zone in Nicosia. Participants were both from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot community. This training included subjects like: use of music, sport and drama as tools for creating mutual understanding and trust, psychosocial well-being of children, teambuilding, conflict resolution, community involvement, etcetera. Based on observations and evaluation forms and surveys filled in by participants, it can be concluded that this first round of trainings was a success. The participants overall were enthusiastic about the training and felt it would be helpful for their work in the youth camps. They also felt that this training had been a good opportunity to exchange experiences and network with other people active in organizing multicultural youth camps. The training will be repeated next year for another 80 to 100 people. Next steps in the project include sending 8 of the participants from the first training round to exchange visits, conferences, or trainings in other countries than Cyprus (for example to Israel). Also the website will be made operational, a first network meeting will be organized and the development of youth camp models for children of different age groups will have started. For more information on this project you can contact Mathijs Euwema (mathijs@icdi.nl).
