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Camps build peace over a tense summer

19 Sep 2007 08:22:26 GMT
Source: World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe office (MEERO)

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Children from the area of Zahlé – located in the Bekaa Valley in central Lebanon east of Beirut – attend the special summer’s program at Kids’ Kingdom.
World Vision MEERO, http://meero.worldvision.org

Despite a tense political and security situation in Lebanon over the summer, each of World Vision's nine area development programmes were able to hold at least one summer camp for needy children – including one that was a first for the area.

Focussing on the themes of peacebuilding and acceptance, the summer camps brought together more than 500 children and gave them the opportunity to learn about acceptance and mutual respect of others' differences.

One of the most exciting camps is the one taking place this week in the remote southern border villages of Wazanieh, Wata El Khiam and Ain Arab villages in Marjeyoun district for more than 80 children between eight and 13 years of age.

'These vulnerable children from the area joined a summer camp for the first time in their life,' said Hanna Swidan, Marjeyoun ADP manager. 'Here they have the chance to sing, dance, play and practice different activities to enhance their knowledge of our ecosystem. Focused sessions were directed to help children become acquainted with positive health habits.'

Summer camps are 'clearly are a cause to celebrate the work we are doing in the area of peacebuilding,' said national director Perry Mansfield.

'Peacebuilding has been identified as one of the seven programmatic foci for World Vision Lebanon in our three-year strategy,' Mansfield said. 'The children are the future of Lebanon and this is why it is important for us to pass on to them a spirit of reconciliation and to teach them peacebuilding skills. In a country such as Lebanon, which was and still is at times deeply torn by political and religious differences, this may well be our greatest contribution.'

'Those camps were an extremely efficient peace-building tool for the children,' said Ruba Khoury, World Vision Lebanon's ADP manager. 'We, however, were very sensitive to security and local context in order to ensure the children's safety, so we sometimes had to plan those camps very close to the villages and some other times we had to be flexible and convert the summer camp to a day camp.'

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Wed Sep 19 09:46:20 2007