Support grieving children and families in Slovakia

This year´s summer camp is over. The common spiritand openness of children who were at our therapeutic summer camp will stay in our minds for a long while, though. Together we were able to make anything happen, even to change the world. None of this would be possible without your support!

During two camp sessions located in Orava, we welcomed 71 children and teenagers who have lost a loved one. Children had the opportunity to get to know other peers of the same age having had the same experience.  So, they could feel “not alone” in such a situation, which could help them a lot in coming to terms with their loss. There was a rich programme prepared for the kids. Besides, in line with the camp theme, they were to “Change the world in 7 days” with our help. A hardly achievable goal, isn´t it? Children took it as a challenge and our sign of trust in them.

We were amazed how quickly they adopted the theme and how they got immersed in it within different creative, sports or therapeutic activities. They were not afraid either to present their ideas how to contribute to a change in different areas or to think about changes that they can do for themselves in a given moment.

We were amazed and completely taken aback by short clips made by children during one day on topic “What message would you leave to others that could contribute to a change”. The idea and story line were both completely in their hands. Our cameraman helped them only with the final movie editing. 

One clip was about a girl cured of leukaemia who could not find friends because she had lost her hair. Eventually, she gets to know another girl who overcame the same illness earlier on and with her help she gets introduced into a group of other children. Another clip features rich parents who do not have time for their children. Their children then wander to streets and start playing with a homeless guy who has plenty of time for them. Eventually, the parents find their children in his company and learn their lesson.

Such serious topics that we would not necessarily expect children to think of may serve us as a reminder that children are sometimes dealing with them even more intensely than we might think. The movie evening ended with our own “Oscar awards ceremony”. All children deserved to be awarded that day.

There were just too many great moments and rich experiences to summarize this summer camp in just one sentence. In case, you would like to know if we would be ready for the same adventure next year, we would need only three words: “Yes! Yes! Yes!” 

Thank you for making it possible.

You can watch a short movie about this year´s therapeutic summer camp here.