About |
Global Camps Africa is a U.S. based 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization that provides education, recreation and crucial life-skills in a residential camp experience to children affected by HIV/AIDS in developing countries. The camps provide a safe, positive environment for children to learn, to gain self-esteem, to have fun and to meet other children in similar situations.
Global Camps Africa was founded by Reston attorney Phillip Lilienthal, who, for 30 years, was the owner and director of a camp in Maine. Mr. Lilienthal, who joined the Peace Corp following law school, had started Ethiopia’s first residential summer camps in 1967 and 1968. He then moved back to the U.S. to start his law practice and raise a family.
In 2003 he once again ventured abroad to see if he might be able to use his camp experience to help HIV/AIDS affected children in South Africa and learned that nothing like it existed. The absence of this type of program, in combination with the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, motivated him to see camp as a vehicle to change the attitudes and behaviors of children and youth about HIV/AIDS and their future.
Mr. Lilienthal developed a prototype and organization that would address this critical need and in 2003 Global Camps Africa was incorporated and received its 501(C)3.
In 2004 Global Camps Africa established the first residential camp program in South Africa, Camp Sizanani. Camp Sizanani is located at a site outside of Johannesburg in the Magaliesburg Mountain area. Sizanani in Zulu means 'to help each other'.
The camp program is part education, part HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and part crucial life skills all wrapped up in a spirit of fun and camaraderie. Six 10-day camps are held each year. Boys' and girls' camps alternate, bringing together 130 children each time and 30-35 counselors. The children range from 10-16 years of age and are largely from the Soweto area. As a follow-up and added support to the children, GCA provides bi-weekly Kids Clubs gatherings at several locations in Soweto to provide on-going mentoring, counseling and one-on-one support. More than 700 children attend these bi-weekly gatherings.
Since its first camp in January 2004, Global Camps Africa has administered 27 ten-day camp sessions to nearly 3,500 children. Children have written about how their lives have changed.
What we give the children is so much more than classes, three meals a day and camaraderie
It seems we equip them with the tools to gain a new sense of possibilities for themselves. This new vision has the power to sustain them when their individual life situations look extremely grim.
Schools, orphanages and children’s groups that have sent children to camp have seen the remarkable difference experiential education, mentoring and peer support has on at-risk youth, and word of GCA’s success is spreading rapidly. In 2007, Global Camps Africa established two additional camp programs in partnership with two local non profits: one for orphans living in one of the poorest regions of South Africa, and one in KwaZulu Natal in partnership with a job training organization in a province with the highest unemployment rate and the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in South Africa.
Children write about how their lives have changed. Parents, caregivers, counselors, teachers and school administrators have responded enthusiastically to the changes exhibited by the children. Teachers have requested that camp counselors come to school to teach life skills courses because of the dramatic behavioral changes they see in those students who have attended camp.
The children themselves are the testament to the success of the camp. Thirteen year old Busi writes: “I came here empty, but now I’m full”. Mmabatho, age 13, from Soweto writes “I never expected to find a place full of mountains and trees. It is quiet and gentle. I will never forget this place.” Fourteen year old Elizabeth writes “Camp Sizanani is a home to me, a place of birth. It changed my life. You taught me to believe in myself.”
Global Camps Africa is a 501(c3) organization headquartered in Reston, Virginia. Donations can be made online at www.GlobalCampsAfrica.org or can be mailed to Global Camps Africa, 1606 Washington Plaza, Reston, VA 20190. For further information call 703.437.0808 or e-mail info@GlobalCampsAfrica.org.