E-Newsletters

JULY 2016

CAMP Goes Global Kicks Off

Our new CAMP Goes Global program is off to a great start this summer! Our first set of South African vochellis - Big Fish, Dennis and Jabu - arrived in the U.S. eager to work with campers and staff at Camp Moss Hollow. Camp Moss Hollow, with a campsite about an hour and half outside of downtown DC, provides underprivileged youth from Southeast DC access to nature, education, and arts programs. Working in this new environment challenged our vochellis to think about ways to connect with these kids, and they finished up their time at Camp Moss Hollow bursting with innovative ideas and advice. Big Fish, Dennis and Jabu also enjoyed participating in a local open mike night in Herndon earlier in the week. They were a big hit with their Afro beat.

We also have vochellis currently volunteering with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington and the Washington, DC Department of Parks and Recreation. The next set of vochellis - Sharron, Koketso and Mandisa - are preparing for their arrival in New York in August to work with the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich and The Stanley Isaacs Center.

We are happy with how well these partnerships with youth development programs in the U.S. are going, and look forward to more opportunities with them in the future.

If you want to become more involved in CAMP Goes Global we are looking for additional volunteers to act as host families for our vochellis. If you're interested, please reach out to Jordan Kough to find out more about the opportunity.

Camp O-At-Ka in Maine Raises Funds for GCA

On July 18th, the 1st annual Camp O-At-Ka Road Race for GCA was held with 100 runners from two camps in Maine, O-At-Ka and Fernwood, participating. Phil spoke to the group beforehand about GCA and Camp Sizanani. The campers were excited about the race to help benefit GCA, as well as learning about other ways to get involved, like donating swimsuits, hats and sneakers.

Kyle Tong, O-At-Ka's director and a former vochelli, was pleased with the turnout and expects the event to grow even bigger in coming years. We’d like to thank Camp O-At-Ka, Camp Fernwood, and all the participants for a fun and successful day!
 

Report from the Field -  GCA Campers Perform at 2016 International AIDS Conference

We are proud to share that one of GCA’s former campers wrote a play that was performed at the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. Nhlanhla Phewa was a participant in the Don Mckenzie Teen Clinic and attended camp at our KwaZulu-Natal location in 2013. A group of campers from this most recent camp session in KwaZulu-Natal performed the play, Truth be Told, at the International AIDS Conference last week.

Stay tuned for more updates from our latest camp session in KwaZulu-Natal!

Download the slidedeck of the Truth be Told play
 

Nhlanhla Phewa

Nhlanhla Phewa

Echidna Giving Fund Supports GCA’s Financial Literacy Program

We are honored  to have recently received $10,000 in funding from Echidna Giving for GCA’s Epstein-Brill Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Program (FLEP). Echidna Giving “joins with critical thinkers, innovators, and practitioners, to advance girls’ education in the developing world.” Our FLEP program provides the opportunity for our former campers and youth club participants to learn practical life skills such as saving, investing, and budgeting for life’s expenses. Thank you to Echidna Giving for your generosity in supporting this program!

 

Call for Yoga Mats

Yoga lessons at camp and Youth Clubs focus on mindfulness, gratitude, and inner peace. Our campers get excited about yoga as something new that many never thought they would get to do themselves. Through yoga they learn that all they need is within them, the importance of physical exercise for a healthy mind in the comfort of their home, and strategies to help them self-regulate when challenges arise. It also gets campers to purposefully think about who they are and how they value themselves.

While we love to do these yoga activities, we are in search of gently used yoga mats to be donated to camp. If you are able to make a donation please contact Courtney Harris.

Did you know you can support GCA just by doing your regular shopping on Amazon?

Our campers understand the true meaning of the AmazonSmile program. Sign up today to ensure that 0.5% of all eligible purchases on Amazon go to GCA and help keep these campers smiling all through Camp Sizanani next year.