World Camp Club: Liwera

“The more we increase the active participation and partnership with young people, the better we serve them. … And the more comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the more we increase our public value to the entire community.”

- Carmen Martinez, U.S. Diplomat

In seeking the active participation of young people World Camp started a World Camp Club at each of the schools we visited this summer. World Camp Clubs are after-school groups that focus on civic engagement and improving community improvement.

Cyrus Jenda, beloved Field Staff and now World Camp Club Mentor, developed the idea for World Camp Clubs and created guidelines for each of our 11 partner primary schools in the Malikha Primary School Zone. Cyrus was instrumental in planning and carrying out World Camp’s first student activism follow-up project this summer.

Liwera Full Primary School was the first we visited during this year’s summer session, staying there from July 10^th through the 13^th. We were struck by the school’s warmness and desire to introduce us to Malawi. We were given sugar cane, taught to make nsima and relish, started a fire, saw our first Gule Wam Kulu (traditional dancers), received Chichewa names, played with our kids well into the dark, and truly felt like part of our host family.

Before leaving Liwera, we set up our second ever World Camp Club (the first was started at Mkhoma Full Primary School this January with hugely successful student-led reforestation projects). The school’s headmaster appointed a matron and patron of the club, and the student body was left with materials to create their own banner. And they surpassed all of our expectations with the end result!

Just two weeks later, in the end of July, we returned to Liwera to hold a quiz competition, challenge students to recall what they’d learned at camp, and dare them to apply what they’d learned to more challenging questions and topics.

The entire WC team was close to tears at the reception we got upon our arrival. The kids were cheering, dancing, jumping, yelling, waving. The Club did their school cheer and the enthusiasm during group songs was infectious. What was even more impressive, though, was the critical thinking and creative responses they provided during the actual quiz. Not only did the students remember how HIV affects the body and how to protect themselves, they knew how to care for someone living with HIV. Perhaps most importantly for a World Camp Club, they could articulate tangible differences they could make in their own community in the fight against HIV!

Zikomo Kwambiri Liwera World Camp Club!!

You impressed us all with your hard work, knowledge, activism, and dedication.
We can’t wait to work with you again!