Camp New Hope (Campemento Nueva Esperanza)

Youth-to-Youth Training for Leadership

The first rains of May and June signaled a sprouting of relationships between PML and the communities of Villa Soberana and El Chague, both located near León.

Over 115 people collaborated as camp counselors, organizers, trainers, participants, and volunteers in a project called Camp New Hope (Nueva Esperanza). The camp's mission was to provide a space where youth could encounter their own leadership potential, address concerns of their communities and enjoy artistic and recreational activities. All of this occurred in an intersection of hearts, minds and energy among youth and young adults from León, Nicaragua, and from Minnesota and Gettysburg, PA, USA.

In Villa Soberana, community concerns include rising gang involvement and drug use, premature pregnancy, complacency, and disregard of the environment. Reasons identified include the sorry fact that after 6th grade most youth stop studying simply because there is no secondary school in the community. With little hope for employment and a resulting depression, many early teens start families or turn to drugs for a lift.

Community leaders believe the complacency is partly a result of decades of generous donations by foreign organizations. Though well intentioned, such generosity can cause people to continue to depend on others for the answers and resources, resulting in diminished commitment to community organization.

Sustainability was a core value in planning Camp New Hope. We succeeded in gaining broad community support for the project, imperative for successful replication by youth leaders in the future. Participants contributed C$10, less than a dollar, but sufficient for sustainability, as these funds will be used for materials in future camps. Cultivating a sense of ownership, youth leaders had named this first camp and determined the themes as well.

We focused for a month on training youth leaders whom the community directiva introduced to us as young adults considered to be positive role models. These young adults spent a day in leadership training provided by a local community theater group, Espiga Nueva (New Growth). Staff from the local Health Center addressed issues of healthy sexual decision making, training about use of condoms and facts about sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.

Four distinct camp sessions of three afternoons each took place, two in Villa Soberana, and two in El Chague. In Villa Soberana, the Nicaraguan youth leaders targeted STDs/AIDS, youth pregnancy, and condom use as the main priorities for adolescents. Youth leaders directed socio-dramas where participants chose either abstinence, sex with protection, or sex without protection. They then acted out scenes one year later to display the consequences of their choices. With donated condoms and cucumbers, the youth leaders gracefully taught participants the correct way to open and use condoms.

In El Chague, the leaders discussed their concerns about the Central American Free Trade Agreement. In both communities, Primitivist Style art teachers led the youth in painting vibrant signs on plywood encouraging all community members to put garbage in its place. These were hung in well trafficked areas around the community.

With the youngsters of each community, leaders directed recreational, team building, and artistic activities. Katie, a lively and wise beyond-her-years volunteer from Golden Valley, introduced Minnesota with pictures and maps. The children lit up when she played her guitar as they sang. Following a lesson about the importance of trees and clean water, the kids canvassed their community, filling plastic bags with garbage from the yards and paths. Each was given a small tree to bring home and plant with their families.

As a culminating gathering, most participants, camp counselors, and directiva members gathered together to enjoy a play addressing the relationship between a father’s abandonment of the family, depression, and delinquency. Many felt pride that day.

Much of the essence of this project has been in the intangibles: friendships, budding leaders, groups working together, honest reflection on mistakes. It has been gratifying to see the leadership task take on a life of its own. The youth have discussed launching a literacy campaign targeting adults, and educating in schools about sexual harassment. Another unexpected benefit of the Camp Hope experience has been the attention and support many members have offered to two North American volunteers living in the community, Katie Jahn of Minnesota and Tori Harper of Pennsylvania. This personal attention is invaluable because soon more North American volunteers will be placed here.

Camp Nueva Esperanza will not change the policies of leaders on the global level nor end government corruption here. But I do believe this camp for building hope was implemented in a way that the fruits will be more than simply a month of smiling faces. We look forward to seeing just what those fruits might be.