Peace Corps Volunteers Welcome Youth to Summer Camp

United States Department of State (Washington, DC)

4 August 2011

Washington — American Peace Corps volunteers organized the 10th season of summer leadership camps for youth in Togo, the corps announced July 28.

In summer 2011, 24 volunteers managed four weeklong leadership camps for nearly 150 young people aged 12 to 23 in Pagala, Togo.

Camp UNITE (Unification of the Nation: Initiative-Work-Education) teaches leadership, communication, life skills, gender equality and HIV/AIDS awareness through interactive workshops, small-group discussions and team-building challenges.

According to the Peace Corps, the majority of Togo’s population lives on less than $2 per day and lacks the resources to adequately care for families and send children to school. Camp UNITE aims to provide education to young people in health, decisionmaking, gender equity and income-generating activities.

“Camp UNITE is a peer educator camp that provides young people with information and skills that help inform healthy life choices,” said Peace Corps volunteer Rose Lindgren, who has helped manage the camps for the last three years. “After a week full of activities and workshops from early morning to late at night, campers are equally exhausted and exhilarated, sad to leave new friends and happy to return home to share what they’ve learned.”

Every year, Peace Corps volunteers hold workshops to train counselors on Camp UNITE’s participatory methods. American volunteers partner with Togolese counselors to run each camp session, a practice that promotes cross-cultural collaboration and improves sustainability.

In addition to promoting self-empowerment, the camp reinforces the solidarity of Togolese youth. After leaving Camp UNITE, some participants organize day camps or youth clubs in their villages and local communities to practice their new skills and share what they learned. The camp also brings together different ethnic groups within Togo and allows participants to make friends and contacts from around the country to encourage future collaborations.

Peace Corps volunteers in Togo originally established Camp UNITE in 2001. The program has since expanded as Peace Corps volunteers organized the camps in collaboration with several Togolese organizations.

According to the corps, 117 volunteers are serving in Togo. Volunteers in this West African nation work in the areas of education, natural resource management, health and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, business development and information technology. More than 2,630 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Togo since the program was established in 1962.

In 2008, Camp UNITE inspired returned Peace Corps volunteers from Togo to start the UNITE Foundation to help fund future camps and engage Americans in service and international development. The foundation aims to collaborate with American summer camps and schools to engage students in cultural exchange with Togolese youth.

The UNITE Foundation aims to provide American students with a personal perspective on the development process in Togo and engage a new generation of innovators devoted to West Africa.

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