The Environment Camp is the outcome of an agreement between SOS-Kinderdorf International and the South Asia Foundation (SAF). Taking a leaf out of SOS Farm Project Malpotha in Sri Lanka, both the organizations have agreed to get the youths from the South Asian countries together to experience the significance of the environment in a rural atmosphere and learn farming techniques together. The Camp’s strength lies in understanding the values of regional cooperation, of working in a cohesive manner towards the protection of the environment as well as learning about the dignity of labour. The SAF takes care of the monetary aspect (travel and other expenditures) while SOS Children’s Villages provides the facilities and opportunities.
The children from SAARC countries (two boys and two girls from each country and two additional from India) and residents of the project take part in the Camp. The participants come from outside the SOS Children’s Villages too, like the Bhutanese and the Maldivians. The first camp was held at Malpotha in Sri Lanka in 2003. In the following year, the SOS Vocational camp was organized in SOS Youth Village-cum-Training Centre Bagerhat in Bangladesh, where the youngsters learned how important it was to respect ecological principles and live in harmony with nature.The degradation of abject poverty made a deep impression on Mr. Madanjeet Singh when once, as a student, he saw at Coimbatore railway station in India the heart-rending scene of a woman cooking rags and old newspapers in a pot for her four naked children. He described the scene in his book ‘This My People’, published in India by Mapin. Hence he was very impressed by the initiative taken by the late Professor Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, who established in 1949 the SOS-Kinderdorf International to provide long-term, family-based care to orphaned children worldwide. SOS Children's Villages came to India in the year 1964 and thereafter to Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Today South Asia has 50 SOS villages with social centres that provide education and care for women and children, outreach programmes and emergency care. The South Asia Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SOS-Kinderdorf International. The first SAF-SOS joint project approved by the SAF Chairpersons, was the Environment (organic farming) camp which was hosted by the SOS Vocational Training & Vacation Centre in Malpotha, Sri Lanka, from August 12th-21st August 2003; the second in Bageraht,Bangladesh, 2004; the third in Bhopal, India, 2005.
In 2006, it took place in Bhopal, India.
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The First SAF-SOS Environment Camp
12th - 21st August 2003, Malpotha, Sri Lanka
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SAF SOS Friendship Camp, in which forty girls and boys participated, was held at the SOS Vocational Training and Vacation Centre in Malpotha, Sri Lanka, from 12th - 21st August 2003. The youngsters learnt about the enormous economic potential of employing improved methods in organic farming and acquiring professional skills for gainful employment. |
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The Second SAF-SOS Environment Camp
SOS Youth Village & Farm Project
December 2004, Bagerhat, Bangladesh
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Kashif Noor and Seemab, SOS Lahore, Pakistan, bidding farewell to their peers.
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The Third SAF-SOS Environment Camp
26th December 2005, Bhopal, India
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Eligibility
Girls and boys from south Asian SOS villages and from Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives are invited to participate. Candidates are selected by SOS villages in cooperation with each SAF respective Chapter.
Contact the chairperson, secretary of the board of each chapter. |
