ESC: Healthy Body Camp II

Nocrich Scout Centre - H.C. Habermann is an educational youth center developed in 2010 as an initiative of the National Organisation of Romanian Scouts, in a village in Transylvania, Nocrich. Our mission is to contribute to the development of children and young people, using the scout method. The scout method has certain elements: nature, scout law and promise, personal progress, community involvement, mentoring & support, learning by doing, team system, symbolic framework. This way, youth are encouraged to be the main agents of their own development as confident, motivated, responsible, and open individuals. We develop weekly non-formal activities with the children and young people from the Nocrich village. Working and learning in this environment can be challenging: the children come from difficult, poor families, where parents often showcase verbal violence and not only, discriminatory behaviors, disrespectful attitudes towards nature. Some of these families are broken either because of divorce or because one of the parents goes to work abroad for more money. The main cause is a low level of education among the adults in the community which, being the main examples for children, often do not motivate them to go to school, learn and strive to make a different living. More than this, there are many punctual projects in the area which provide material support to these families in the form of clothes, shoes, school supplies, food, etc. This sort of periodic social aid caused the development of an attitude where they take this help for granted and even expect it. When we came with a different perspective, of helping them through educational activities, they didn't understand this as help as long as they were not given something material. All of these caused the children to have a very short attention span and unusually serious discipline problems. However, this way the volunteers have a greater impact on the community and also on their personal development, acquiring extensive experience and know-how on social inclusion, non-discrimination, community building, interculturality, environment protection, and equal chances.