Letter from Turkana: Summer Youth Camp at Muketuri

Lourdes Larruy from the Missionary Community of St Paul the Apostle (MCSPA) in northwest Kenya writes: For the past two weeks, 55 young people have been attending a Summer Camp at the St Joseph's Mother and Child Centre, that the MCSPA is running at Muketuri (just over the border in Ethiopia).

We started this Centre in 2008 and, in order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding, we organised a summer camp for former students and youth from the area. Our aim was to encourage them to create the 'St Joseph Youth Group'.

This was organised by some members of the Catholic Scout Movement from Spain together with members of MCSPA present at Muketuri.

The main idea is to create awareness among Ethiopian youth about their potential in volunteer work as promoters of change among children, youth and families of the area.

Different activities have been organised: sports, drama, fabrication of musical instruments with recycled material etc. The topics of the drama plays have been chosen by the participants themselves with the idea to present them at the different villages and schools: How to fight gender discrimination; Importance of hygiene; Causes and consequences of child malnourishment; Peace and conflict resolution; Inclusion of people with disabilities and Taking care of the environment.

The drama groups are presenting the topics in five villages and at Muketuri town to create awareness on these social realities and how the community can improve the situation.

It is the first time that an activity like this is being organised in the area and this has been an extraordinary opportunity for building up the local community.

The MCSPA is funded from the UK by New Ways, a charity run entirely by volunteers To make a donation see: https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/newways

Read more about New Ways here: www.newways.org.uk/index.html