Campamento Mi Momento 2019
We’ve just returned from another year of Campamento Mi Momento in Nicaragua. This program includes five days in a camp environment where we focus on providing girls with skills of leadership, goal-setting, proper coping, and relationship building. We’re excited to share this years’ experience with you!
Before we dive into the details of camp this year, allow us to share with you why we are so passionate about this program in Nicaragua. The machismo culture in the country is prominent, leaving young girls ingrained with a perception of inequality between men and women. Our goal with camp is to help our participants to understand that they are important, powerful, and capable of choosing their own life path. We see girls at camp that have clearly gone through some serious hardships, whether it be physical or sexual violence, neglect, or unwanted pressures from society. Campamento Mi Momento gives them a safe space to share, learn, and grow, while developing useful life skills to carry with them into their futures.
This year, we brought together 40 girls, aged 13-18, to a beautiful location in the capital city of Managua. Half of our participants were from orphanages, while the other half were from City Sandino, a community that is faced with an increased rate of extreme poverty. This is the second year that we’ve had the opportunity to serve girls outside of the orphanage setting and we’ve found that the need for this experience is prevalent no matter what environment you’re from.
For the past two years, we’ve had the added bonus of being able to employ local Nicaraguan women as our camp counselors. These are women who all have educational backgrounds and experience in social work, teaching, or psychology. They all so clearly possess a strong passion for the program, and they work so hard to ensure each camper gains something from the experience. We watched as they each enthusiastically delivered their “charla”, or lesson, to the receptive campers. In these charlas, we cover topics like self-esteem building, power in relationships, sexual health, and assertive communication, each designed to be especially relevant to a young woman living in Nicaragua.
Make no mistake, we do find time in the schedule to have an absolute blast. The girls love tie-dying their camp T-shirts and learning how to make dream catchers to hang by their bedsides. The bonfire proved to be a camp favorite. What started out as a very emotional experience with one of our counselors delivering a beautifully moving speech reminding the girls that this is their moment and their time, soon turned into a giant dance party filled with laughter and pure joy. A talent show closed the week, with gaggles of girls excited to show the group their rehearsed (and not so rehearsed) dances and songs. We even had a group of girls perform a drama sketch that incorporated some of the topics they learned throughout the week!
We’re so grateful to have been able to host another successful year of Campamento Mi Momento. The impact that this program has on the campers is evident. It truly is their moment that they can cherish for the rest of their lives.
