World Camp
Encyclopedia
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
. World Camp was founded in 2000 by students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, and continues to be led, funded, managed, and operated by young adults. Since 2001, volunteers from 24 additional colleges and universities have participated in January and Summer programs and educated approximately 25,000 children in southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. Students from Appalachian State, Birmingham Southern, Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
, College of Charleston
College of Charleston
The College of Charleston is a public, sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States...
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, Franklin and Marshall, Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
, Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
, Sewanee
Sewanee
Sewanee may refer to:* Sewanee, Tennessee* Sewanee: The University of the South* Sewanee Review* Sewanee Natural Bridge* Saint Andrews-Sewanee School-See also:* Suwanee * Suwannee * Swanee...
, University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, UNC Asheville
University of North Carolina at Asheville
The University of North Carolina at Asheville is a co-educational, four year, public liberal arts university. The university is also known as UNC Asheville. Located in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, UNCA is the only designated liberal arts institution in the University of North...
, UNC Wilmington
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, sometimes referred to as UNC Wilmington, is a public, co-educational university located in Wilmington, North Carolina...
, University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
, University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...
, University of Nebraska, University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
, University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Centre College
Centre College
Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, USA, a community of approximately 16,000 in Boyle County south of Lexington, KY. Centre is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution. Centre was founded by Presbyterian leaders, with whom it maintains a loose...
, Wooster College, and Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
have participated in World Camp. World Camp currently conducts HIV/AIDS prevention education and environmental conservation education in the rural school districts surrounding Lilongwe
Lilongwe
Lilongwe, estimated population 902,388 as of 2009, is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It lies in the country's central region, on the Lilongwe River, near the border of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, and on the main north-south highway of Malawi, the M1.-History:The city started life as a...
, Malawi.
History of World Camp and World Camp for Kids
World Camp was originally founded in 1999 and 2000 by college students following their travels throughout southern Africa. Many founding members participated in study abroad programs or summer volunteer programs in southern Africa, and were moved by the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, especially the challenges it placed on children and their communities. Wanting to continue their involvement in southern Africa, they sought out more long-term and involved volunteer experiences. Finding many programs to be prohibitively expensive, these students worked together to form a new, cooperative organization called World Camp for Kids. (World Camp now charges participants a fee to facilitate five weeks of teaching in Malawi) They met with various ministries of education, established contacts, evaluated specific country and regional needs, and raised funds under the name World Camp for Kids. World Camp for Kids was also the name of the official student organization at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was then providing limited financial and institutional support. The 2000 World Camp for Kids team consisted of ten students who travelled throughout southern Africa, researching effective teaching methods and developing the curriculum that eventually became the cornerstone of World Camp Malawi's educational outreach program.Due to the positive reception in the previous year, the 2001 volunteers chose to return exclusively to Malawi. They camped for 10 weeks as they travelled through the Lilongwe rural east and west school districts, conducting two-day educational camps. World Camp for Kids continued to grow, and by the summer of 2002, the organization was renting a home and office space in Lilongwe, operating a company vehicle, distributing traditional food (nsima, a.k.a. nshima
Nshima
Nshima or nsima or Bidia is a cornmeal product and a staple food in Zambia, Malawi and the Kasai Oriental and Kasai Occidental provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is made from ground maize flour known locally as mealie-meal...
in Zambia), school supplies, and safe sex
Safe sex
Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...
materials during its educational outreach camps. After a formal name change, World Camp, Inc. established a permanent office and volunteer residence in Area 3, Lilongwe. In that year, World Camp began conducting three-day educational camps with professional translators, community presentations, and the free distribution of simple solar ovens. The organization also began working in regions further from the capital, such as Dedza
Dedza
Dedza is the main township of Dedza District in the Central Region of Malawi.Dedza is located about 85 km south of Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, off the M1 road to Blantyre at a point where a trans-African highway from Johannesburg enters the country....
and Dowa
Dowa
Dowa is a town located in the Central Region of Malawi. It is the administrative capital of Dowa District. William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, was born and raised in Dowa....
. World Camp continues to use the three-day camp model developed by the 2003 team.
Volunteer Residence
World Camp Malawi is run out of LilongweLilongwe
Lilongwe, estimated population 902,388 as of 2009, is the capital and largest city of Malawi. It lies in the country's central region, on the Lilongwe River, near the border of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, and on the main north-south highway of Malawi, the M1.-History:The city started life as a...
, the capital city of Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
. World Camp volunteer teachers are stationed in the World Camp house which is located in Area 3, on the new side of 'Old Town'. The house also contains the regional World Camp Office. As opposed to organizations like the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
, which emphasize cultural immersion in aid work, World Camp volunteers return to their base each night during regular camps. Participants have voiced concerns that living in a sheltered, western environment detracts from the their effectiveness as teachers. However, World Camp directors insist that keeping volunteers healthy and well rested is essential for the success of the organization's educational operations. Volunteers are offered several occasions to stay in the rural villages in which they teach, if they so choose.
Educational Camps
World Camp’s educational programs are conducted in a day camp setting for Malawian students in primary grades 5-8. The four-day program includes games, songs, physical activity, targeted workshops, visual aids, hands-on projects, science experiments, and in-depth discussions regarding locally challenging issues. Borrowing from methods used in U.S. summer camps and school programs, the games, songs, and physical activities are meant to promote self-confidence, leadership, and team building. Classroom time is spent in HIV/AIDS prevention and environmental conservation lessons. Camps end with a presentation ceremony in which volunteer teachers and local students present skits pertaining to HIV/AIDS and deforestation to community members, and community members often share songs, dances, and their own skits with volunteers.Although Malawian primary standard curricula often incorporate HIV/AIDS and deforestation lessons into class time, World Camp attempts to clarify many misconceptions, foster a more detailed understanding of complex subjects, and teach in an engaging manner that is assumed to be new and memorable for students. Activities such as building and testing a simple, functioning solar oven and creating group presentations complete with props, posters, songs and dances, are thought to leave a lasting impression on underprivileged pupils. Through volunteer evaluations and student testing, World Camp has found its curriculum to be effective at changing students’ understanding of concepts concerning the transmission and prevention of HIV. In a study during the summer of 2003, supervised by Professor Richard Smith, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Statistics http://www.stat-or.unc.edu/, World Camp found student scores on 1687 simple HIV/AIDS quizzes rose from an average of 68% to 86% over the course of the three-day camp, and remained at 83% 4–6 weeks after each camp. The change in average scores was found to be statistically significant. Please see reference “Analysis of World Camp HIV/AIDS Quizzes” for further information. http://www.worldcampforkids.org/wck_stat.pdf
Teacher Workshops
World Camp, with support from the Ministry of Education in Malawi, now concurrently provides student education and teacher training. Primary school teachers participate in a volunteer led, informational, discussion based workshop, supplemented with informational packets produced by World Camp. In addition to education, teacher workshops focus on creating HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention clubs for their schools, developing native language (Chichewa) HIV/AIDS educational materials, and planning educational outreach activities for the community at large. Teachers are encouraged to be a liaison to the community, and to play a central role in the presentation ceremony attended by local peoples on the last day of camp. Teachers are sometimes non-responsive to the workshops, for several possible reasons. Middle-aged teachers may be offended by, or uninterested in, the input of foreign, younger volunteers. Very understandibly, Malawian primary school teachers also suffer from motivation and morale issues. Up to 1 in 3 teachers are HIV-positive in Malawi, their salaries are extremely inadequate, alcohol abuse is common, and teachers often have more than 100 students per class.
Honduras Program
Starting in summer 2006, World Camp extended its efforts to Honduras. The project site is the North Coast of the country, around the small town of TelaTela
Tela is a town in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the department of Atlantida.-History:Tela was founded by the Spanish conquistador Cristóbal de Olid on 3 May 1524 near an indigenous town named Tehuacán, ruled by a cacique named Cucumba which had a very good source of...
. Based on the Malawi program, the Honduras curriculum is taught in three-day camps at primary schools in rural towns surrounding Tela. Each morning, volunteers travel to the schools and return to the World Camp house at night. The local students are in grades equivalent to middle school in the US, ranging from age 10 to 16. Following morning activities, each class moves to their classroom and begins learning the HIV/AIDS and environmental curriculum. The day winds down in the afternoon with games such as relay races and ultimate frisbee. On the third day, family and friends of the students are invited to camp presentations. Each class of students presents a part of the World Camp curriculum to the community through songs and skits.
The Honduras program is in an early stage of development, and must be refined further to meet the specific needs of Tela, and surrounding areas. Thus, each camp is formally evaluated and volunteers are expected to voice their ideas about how to improve the program and/or curriculum. Also, progress in educational operations is often impeeded by unpredictable logistical problems, most notably teacher strikes. Outside technical assistance is currently being solicited to adapt World Camp's Malawi curriculum to better address the challenging issues in and around Tela.