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Global Camps Africa is the only residential camp program of its kind in South Africa. It provides HIV/AIDS affected children with education, recreation and life skills lessons all in a spirit of fun and camaraderie.
Camp Sizanani is in the countryside about an hour from Johannesburg (in Zulu, Sizanani means ‘to help each other’).
Three to six 9-day camps are held each year, bringing together up to 300 children and 30-35 counselors. The children are from 10-16 years old and are mostly from Soweto.
In just five years, more than 3,700 children have had been able to attend camp and our Kids Clubs in Soweto, a year-round bi-weekly program we run to provide ongoing mentoring, tutoring and counseling and to reinforce lessons learned at camp.
Many of the children arriving at Camp Sizanani are poor, orphaned and abused. They arrive with just the clothes on their backs and may speak a language that might be different from any of the 11 official languages of South Africa. They all experience a wonderful time and gain the confidence and knowledge to deal with the hand life has dealt them.
To leverage the success of Camp Sizanani, Global Camps Africa has started a training program to duplicate our program throughout South Africa and other AIDS impacted areas. To date, three additional camps have started, and Global Camps Africa has trained staff for a camp in Uganda as well.
In the spirit of Ubuntu (Zulu, for "human kindness"), thank you for your support of Global Camps Africa and our mission to help HIV/AIDS affected children in South Africa.
Donations can be made online by clicking DONATE NOW or can be mailed to Global Camps Africa, 1606 Washington Plaza, Reston, VA 20190.
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Photos ©2008 MarcAltman, www.marcaltman.com
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In a rural area two hours north of Johannesburg, South Africa, a massive camp-fire is roaring, warming the bodies of 150 South Africans against a cool spring night in late September. The fire lights their faces as they sway back and forth, singing. Most of those gathered range in age from 11 to 17, but there are older men and women scattered among them, mostly in the front, leading the songs or the dances that sometimes accompany the music. There is no other noise in the night, just the sound of these 150 voices raised together, singing the same words over and over again, so that the words become a rhythmic chant.
Reston, Virginia
I recently spent 2 1/2 weeks volunteering at CampSizanani, a camp for children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
