fundraiser – n. someone who solicits financial contributions
Just add that to my job description as a Peace Corps volunteer. I’ll admit, when I applied for the Peace Corps, I didn’t consider this portion of the job. The potential for only having access to an outhouse for 2 years overshadowed other less important job requirements. I never thought that I’d become so accustomed to asking for money, but it has been the driving force behind almost every project I’ve done here. Money makes the world go ’round, I guess.
And on that note, money will make some Ukrainian students very happy this summer. I am working at 2 camps during the month of July, and well, both of them need money.
The first is Camp SLAM. This camp is organized by the Healthy Lifestyles Working Group, a sort of Peace Corps club for volunteers, of which I’m one of the co-chairs. My name is on the grant, but the entire process and organization has been a group effort. And the camp is going to be awesome. It’s an English camp for students ages 14-22, and our theme is Healthy Lifestyles. The premise of an “activity” camp is something of a novelty here. Usually, Ukrainian kids go to a camp to relax for 3 weeks. There are no “sports camps” like I participated in practically every summer of my life. I had my own students sold on the camp as soon as the words yoga and American football came out of my mouth. We’ll introduce the campers to activities such as frisbee and maybe lacrosse, and we’ll have 2 classes a day as well. There will be a lot of focus on teamwork and respect, and the excitement of trying new things will hopefully make classes on topics such as anti-smoking and self-image more intriguing than if the students were to learn about this in a regular classroom setting. And it’s a great way for them to practice their English.
A more detailed description of the camp and the link to donate to it can be found here:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-228
The second camp is Camp HEAL. Camp Heal has a great reputation in the Peace Corps here. The Leadership Conference I worked at last fall was an offshoot of Camp HEAL, and while its main focus is HIV/AIDS, we’ll also cover topics such as human trafficking, leadership and project design and management. There was a tangible sense of empowerment among campers at the Leadership Conference last year—it has got something to do with the power of the information we give to these students, and the fact that we give it to them in a way that they can use it. We aren’t just teaching these kids about the biology, transmission, stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS, we’re teaching them how to make this topic something to be discussed in their country. Ways they can literally change their world for the better.
More description and the link to donate to Camp HEAL can be found here:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=343-215
