Letting kids be kids is the goal three Saskatchewan volunteers set for a camp they started in Rwanda in 2008.
Daniel Wiebe of Rosthern, Sask., recalled his own experiences at church-operated summer camp on the Prairies when he helped establish Camp Gahini for junior and high school aged Africans.
Wiebe, with friends Jordan Lehmann of Rosthern and Kenton Klassen of Hague, worked with a local village church that provided the space and other Canadian prairie volunteers to create church day camps.
Activities included music, swimming, games, lunch and Bible study.
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Wiebe saw parallels between a Rwandan child’s life and the prairie pioneers on homesteads at the turn of the century. School is followed by chores and food is plentiful on farms but there is little time to play, he said.
“For kids in Rwanda, life is filled with a lot of work,” he said. “There’s no room for them just to play and be kids.”
The trio established the co-ed camps as a place for children to have fun.
Wiebe described the Africans’ “joyful expressions” experiencing a water slide for the first time and their hugs of gratitude when departing the week-long camp.
“I will never forget you,” one told him through an interpreter.
“This is an experience that will truly have an impact on their lives,” Wiebe said.
Lehmann wanted to focus on the children, some without parents and others whose early memories are of the country’s genocide.
“We wanted to create an environment to have fun and to make good memories,” he said of the four one-week camps, each of which accommodated 100 youths.
For Lehmann, it was overwhelming to see the children arriving by foot from several hours away each day and dressed in their blue camp T-shirts.
Wiebe found the experience memorable, satisfying and rewarding.
“To be able to give time and money and know the amount of joy that they can bring is a phenomenal experience,” said Wiebe.
The trio, which has travelled together on their world faith tour, funded the camp with their own money raised from construction jobs and from donations from their Canadian communities.
They are now building a home in Saskatchewan to help raise funds to make the camp a permanent one. They hope to create the Limitless Ministry and expand the camp’s role to include developing job skills in Rwandan youth. They are also working with a fundraiser to finds ways to keep the project going.
For more information, visit www.worldfaithtour.blogspot.com.
