Grenzenlos is currently celebrating 10 years of their receiving program in Austria: International Camps (internationally known as Work Camps). The concept of an international volunteer camp is to bring together locals as well as international youth and give them the opportunity to unite and share customs, ideas and in general to exchange their culture. One of the main aims is to integrate international, but as well local participants with disabilities in the work and daily life of a camp. The participants share their homes and lives and work together on a specific project in their host country for 2-3 weeks. Some of the projects in Austria have been: restoring a Viennese garden, support of children from homeless family, art work in a theatre camp, etc.
Through their specific projects, volunteer camps build tolerance and understanding for people from different cultures, religions or skin colour and thereby help overcome prejudices.
The aims of volunteer camps are:
- the promotion of peace and understanding on an international, national or regional level through the development of democratic structures, integration, peaceful solution finding, the reduction of prejudices and through respecting all human beings.
- Supporting a non-profit organisation or local community.
- Intercultural learning experience, an opportunity of getting to know a new country and culture in a way that would never be possible as a tourist
- Experiencing group dynamics
Volunteer camps not only make international participants revise their opinions and concepts, they also increase local communities’ tolerance towards other cultures
Focus on Social Integration: This special form of volunteer camp aims at bringing together a group of people with special needs with international volunteers and local youths to work together on a purposeful project and gain valuable experiences. This camps offer a relaxed setting for youth to lose their reservations and maybe break fears of contact towards people with special needs.
Good example are the Theater Camps in Vienna. A Theater Camp lasts 3 weeks and it consists of a group of international and local participants who developed a theatre play. Apart from being an intercultural and artistic camp, it focuses on inclusion. One of the main goals is to be constant aware of integrating all the participants no matter what background they have. Especially important was the inclusion of participants who have physical or mental obstacles to overcome.
It was such a quick and intense process but beautiful to observe the participants development on a daily basis. They cooked together, worked together, sleep in the same big room, learn to respect each other and their way of thinking, communicated in different English “styles”, made and resolve conflicts together, etc. The participants find people who accepted them for who they are, no questions asked, no bullying, no ignoring, just pure and honest acceptance, patience and sharing.
Even do the camps last only 3 weeks, time isn’t here the main factor; is the experience, the moment, the environment, the people, the openness. This is what makes a difference in the participants and in the community.
The international camps are a great opportunity to contribute to the community through voluntary work as well as to give opportunities to participants with special needs to volunteer nationally and hopefully (in a near the future) internationally as well.
So it doesn’t matter how small the window is, it can open a huge unknown but satisfying world of opportunities.
