Proposal for Youth Camp

'Cultivating Values in Children'

I. Introduction :

Majority of girls in Nepal do not have an equal access to basic education, are not able to make right decisions about their futures, and are unable to protect themselves from trafficking and other potential dangers. Similarly, the cases of child marriage, child labour, and children ignoring their responsibilities towards their family and community and entirely towards the nation are escalating.

By organizing value-based camps for girls, we can help girls develop leadership quality, decision making capacity and various skills that help them to prepare for their life to lead and to influence their local communities. In turn, this kind of camp will have a positive impact on over all personality development of girls uplifting them and their moral.

Giving Girls Hope

More than 25 percent of school age children in Nepal are out of school and the school enrollment growth rate is below 2 percent per annum. The majority of those without access to education are girls and children from disadvantaged communities. The estimation of 40% of girls getting marriage before the age of 16 is one of the major problems, along with social evils like child labour, Kamaiya and Kamlari system and so on which show the clear picture of the Nepali society how much backward it is.

This camp aims to inspire participants, particularly the girls with an essential courage to liberalize them from the chains of traditional belief systems and contemporary societal demarcations that has kept girls suppressed, oppressed and stressful and are deprived of seeing truly their intrinsic beauty and power. The central objective of the camp is to give girls a hope to lead the life boosting them up with their morale.

"The real difficulty is that people have no idea of what education truly is. We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or of shares in the stock-exchange market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more. We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The girls, we say, do not have to earn; so why should they be educated? As long as such ideas persist there is no hope of our ever knowing the true value of education". (Gandhi)

This is a proposal to run a 3 and a half Day Youth Camp in collaboration with Shanti Sewa Ashram (SSA), Youth Society for Peace (YSP), Room to Read . The camp will be organized at Durga Guest House Gulariya, Bardiya, Western part of Nepal . The beneficiaries of the program are girls aged 11 to 16 years who are sponsored by Room to Read.

II. Goal:

The camp will help participants to get strong determination to enhance their morale enabling them to take up challenges and opportunities in upcoming days and encouraging them to be good and responsible individuals towards their locality and nation.

III. Objectives:

After the completion of this camp, the participants will be able to:

- do a positive action within three months period (January - March 2009)

- develop clear vision, mission and goal in their life

- have positive thoughts

- enable to speak and write without difficulty in community.

- boost up their moral

IV. Methodology:

Date - Dec. 17 (evening), 18, 19, 20 and 21(morning), 2008

Duration - 15 Hours Everyday (6:00 am to 9:00 pm) - Total 45 hours

Participants - Around 50 Kamlari girls

Age of the participants - Aged 11 to 16 years

Venue - Durga Guest House Gulariya, Bardiya

V. Features of the Program:

The program will comprise of Yoga, meditation, counseling and friendship games. As a part of the program, there will be interactions, talk programs, workshops in order to empower the participants. Similarly, power point presentations, some creative works to familiarize their potentials can be done. Songs, poems, prayers, stories, dramas and field visits will be additional inputs for the program.

VI. Activities:

Daily Program: It will be specifically embodied under daily Routine.

* Yoga - A combined package of Meditation, Pranayam and Aasana

(It will help them to build up sound health and provide them with some basic tools in order to maintain their emotional problems and have a stress free life. They can continue to practice these life-long useful tools in their daily life.)

* Talks - By trainers

(Topics : Our Culture Our Pride, Ethics in Life, Role of Youth for the Creation of Better Society, Values for Our Life, New Nepal - Our Dreams and Responsibilities, Our Rights - Our Duties, Child Labour: A Shameful Crime)

* Interaction - There will be group interactions under the guidance of trainers

(Topics for the motive of interaction are: Characteristics of Good Students, Right Relationship and Co-existence, Saving Our Environment; Good Citizens, Smoking, Child Marriage, Child Labour, Importance of Family, Children's' Responsibility towards Community, Preserving Indigenous Culture, Educating girls is Empowering girls)

* Friendship Games - Physical and Intellectual Games

(Creative, healthy and entertaining games based on our Nepali culture, local resources and skills can be played)

* Power Point Presentation - Power Point Presentation will be on specifically intellectual, spiritual, visionary and creative subjects as well as on pressing issues consisting of: culture, community, country, positivity, creativity and humanity.

* Paper Work - Practical paper works will be conducted in different groups anticipating participants to express themselves with an easy and healthy environment

(Paper work will be basically based on necessity of counseling in life, life skills, ethics, emotional problems, personality development, leadership quality and the like)

* Creative Presentation - Arts, Poems, Songs, Stories, Dramas

(Participants will be expected to exhibit their unexpressed and hidden potential and talents in an encouraging and conducive environment through various ways with the various means of artistic works such as: poems, songs, stories and dramas.)

* Bhajans / Songs / Prayers - For Strengthening Spirituality, Humanity and Interfaith

(This very uplifting session to be organized every evening so that the participants will try to understand their deeper feelings and realize essential grounds loosing out their personality as an influence of prayers and songs.)

* Entertainment - Folk songs, dances, jokes and comic strips

(This session will be conducted every day in which participants will join together to have a great fun and build up a good friendship with each other, which will be equally useful in the days to come for them)

* Field Visit - The spot for the field visit will be Bardiya National Park especially to view Krishnasaar (A Guided Tour)

- The participants should write at least a page about their experience in tour.

Daily Routine:

1. Yoga and Meditation: 6:00 - 8:00 AM

2. Breakfast: 8:00 - 8:30 AM

3. Talk Program A: 8:45 - 9:15 AM

4. Interaction A: 9:30 - 10:30 AM

5. Paper Work: 10:30 - 11:30 AM

6. Lunch: 11:30 -12:30 PM

7. Creative Presentation (Group work): 12:30 - 1:30 PM

8. Interaction B: 1:30 - 2:30 PM

9. Talk B: 2:30 - 3:00 PM

10. Power Point Presentation: 3:00 -4:00 PM

11. Snacks: 4:00 -4:30 PM

12. Friendship Games: 4:30-5:45 PM

13. Bhajans/Songs/prayers: 6:00 –7:00 PM

14. Dinner: 7:00- 7:45 PM

15. Entertainment: 7:45 – 8:45 PM

16. Bed Time: 9:00 PM

VII. Code of Conduct: The following are the laws and legislations in which the participants should limit their behavioural activities:

- No smoking, no chewing gum, and no quarrelling

- No discrimination on the basis of caste, class and color

- No fashionable dress; only gentle make up and dress up

- Punctuality should be maintained

- No one is allowed to go outside the camp premises without special permission

- No mimicking and no partiality

- No segregation is permitted towards any participants

- Participants should abide by the rules and regulations of the camp

VIII. Roles and Responsibilities of Trainers / Facilitators:

Basically the trainers - YSP volunteers - have been working for the last many years for the promotion of values at various levels. They are trained by SSA and HVP and can run camps, workshops and conferences at national and international levels. These are the youths equipped with long experiences of national and international camps, workshops and conferences and have committed to purposefully lead their lives with Right Vision, Right Mission and Right Action. The roles and responsibilities of lead trainer and other facilitators and trainers are mentioned below:

Program Coordinator -- Dr. Chintamani Yogi ( Founder of HVP/SSA/SVE and YSP)

Roles and Responsibilities of Program Coordinator

- To inspire and motivate the trainers throughout the program

- To facilitate and direct the program

- To give a valuable talk to the trainees

Facilitators:

Mr. Laxman Panthi: Yoga and Meditation/ Friendship Games

Mr. Abhisekh KC: Creative Presentation

Mr. Sujan Bishwakarma: Management/Bhajans / Songs / Prayers

Volunteers:

Ms. Anita Thapa: Art and craft *

Ms. Poonam Bastola: Dance and songs*

Contract Person from Room to Read:

Azelya Ranjitkar ; Senior Program Officer (Kathmandu)

1. All the officials of SSA/YSP will get there on 17th morning.

2. All the participants will reach at Durga Guest House, Gulariya Bardiya on 17th Dec. (evening) in the coordination of Room to Read.

3. After the completion of the program, SSA will transfer the rest of the responsibilities along with participants (after tea) to Room to Read officials on 21st Dec. (morning) at the Guest House.

IX. Outcome of the Program:

Participants will be expected to be well behaved, confident, positive and smart in every field. Similarly, they will be thought to build up different kinds of qualities such as leadership, self-discipline, clear outlook, positive attitude towards the life, life skill, respect for all, walking together, sharing with all, co-existence, strong determination, understanding their duty and rights. They will be able to maintain right relationship with their family members and relatives.

X. Deliverable: After the completion of the program SSA/ YSP officials will deliver following items by Dec. 29, 2008 to Room to read:

Documentation: - CD Video documentation

- Program detail report with photos

- Original bill vouchers

(50 plans of actions will be provided by SSA/YSP officials and will be monitored by the local officer of Room to Read.)