The Hawli w Hawalaye (“About and Around Me”) children’s summer camps toolkit was developed by STEPS and forumZFD Lebanon as part of the forumZFD Capacity Development Programme to support organisers of children's summer camps – be it NGOs, Clubs, schools or dedicated individuals - in offering children new skills in a fun and interactive way.
The toolkit is designed for animators to work with children during summer camps in an engaging way and also facilitating learning about non-violent conflict transformation. In six chapters, the animator is equipped to organise successful summer camps for children between the age of eight and twelve. The exercises cover up to seven weeks of activity and range from the first ‘getting to know each other’ to community initiatives conveyed through games and songs. The children are encouraged to know ‘the other’ in their community, taught how to deal with diversity and difference and empowered with conflict transformation skills. The toolkit also provides practical guidance and recommendations on how to implement the content and build an engaging summer camp.
Within the framework of the project, interested organizations are also offered the opportunity to attend trainings for animators on how to implement the toolkit. The participants learn more about conflict transformation, roles and responsibilities of animators, child protection and how to deal with diversity when working with children.
The toolkit is part of forumZFD’s strategy to support NGO’s, pedagogical staff, community activists and educational organisations and institutions in different governorates in applying the methodologies of non-violent communication, conflict sensitivity and conflict transformation in their work and reflects forumZFD’s mission that “communities and individuals are empowered to work pro-actively and committed towards the acceptance and understanding of ‘the other’ and their needs.”
The Handbook (Arabic) can be downloaded here. To find out more about this project please find the forumZFD one pager here.