Reminiscing and Ready: Peace Corps Ukraine Summer.
Written by Sara Sherman, PCV Ukraine Group 51
The buds on the trees are emerging, the skies are scattered in blue and the sidewalks in puddles. Spring is here in Ukraine! Volunteers are filling social media with sunny photos and hopeful thoughts of warmer days as they all remember the infamous Ukrainian summer. Daydreams of fresh strawberries and watermelon from the bazaar, lazy days by the river, destination traveling across the country and the best part of it all – summer camps!
In 2018, Peace Corps Volunteers implemented a whopping 16 large-scale summer camps across the country. Out of the 16 camp grants written, 13 were Let Girls Learn (LGL) grants, and three were Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) grants. LGL grants have a maximum funding cap of $3,500. If the requested grant amount exceeds the $3,500, then outside donor funding is required. PCPP grants are fully funded through outside donors. In some cases, if the full grant request is not met, then any dollar amount less than $2,000 will be pulled from the Global Fund.
Based on the 2018 fiscal year data from the Peace Corps Ukraine Grant Coordinator, Nastia Ritziuk, PCVs implemented summer projects bringing over $67,200 into the country through grants and outside donations. This includes all the small-scale summer mini-camps and projects throughout Ukraine.
Some summer camps rely heavily on donations from outside sources. Last year, the lack of donations caused several camps and mini-camps to reduce their budget tremendously – sometimes by half. This can cause youth applicants to be turned away, lack of funding for overnight stay resulting in reducing the length of the camp, or insufficient materials for the courses offered.
As these camps reach out to our network for support, we’ll be posting the donation opportunities on the “Support a PCV” section of our website. Please give generously if you’re able!
Ukrainian summer camps are vital in sharing and teaching life skills to the youth on a broad spectrum. They bring together students from all over the country, exposing them to different dialects, perspectives and knowledge-based skills. PCVs and host-country nationals develop innovative ways to teach youth through varying themes of girls and boys empowerment, politics, creative writing, theatre, English, and sport camps. The opportunities for students across the country are boundless, which makes the Ukrainian summer such a special time of year.
Reminiscing on the summer of 2018…
CAMP GLOW
Sarah Winter is a Community Development Volunteer in Mykolaivs’ka Oblast, and Lacey Wickersham is a TEFL Volunteer in Dnipropetrovska Oblast. Both volunteers are from Group 52, and attended the camp in 2018 as counselors. This year, both PCVs will each be serving as camp directors for two separate Camp GLOW events.
Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a girl’s empowerment camp teaching female youth in Ukraine about gender equality and leadership. The camp is for woman-identifying youth ranging between the ages of 14 – 18.
The Camp GLOW schedule includes sessions ranging between women in media, multiculturalism, privilege, relationships and consent, sexual health and body positivity. The camp also offers counselor-led electives such as Spanish language, yoga, art history, and different craft activities like painting. City-wide excursions and social activities also provide time for bonding between campers.
This year, as camp directors, Sarah and Lacey work very closely alongside their Ukrainian co-directors, as well as PCV co-directors for each of their camps. Within their managerial camp teams, they ensure the logistics are in place, the scheduling is fun and informational, and assuring the LGL grant is properly written and the fundraising website is prepared for necessary donations.
Sarah fuels her drive as a new director from the memories she holds as a counselor from Camp GLOW 2018.
“My favorite memory from the camp was watching all the campers come to the realization of how strong they are, and who they can be,” she said. “It was during an activity when we have all the campers write about what makes each other beautiful, and when they see their own paper later you could tell how inspired they were to have the recognition from their friends about what makes them great.”
Lacey openly agreed with the recollection of the best memories, and remembered being captured by watching the campers become more themselves and form friendships.
“Both of us truly want Camp GLOW 2019 to be a time of empowerment for our campers,” Lacey said. “We hope that this year brings about a new group of girls all eager to learn and be with one another. The week is not just about empowering themselves, but empowering each other in a community to go forward and make Ukraine strong and having equal opportunities for all.”
Sarah will be directing Camp GLOW in Kharkivska Oblast on July 28th – August 3rd, and Lacey will be directing Camp GLOW in Dnipropetrovska Oblast on August 18th – 24th.
CAMP MODEL UN
Evan DeaKyne, a Group 51 Youth Development Volunteer from Kyivska Oblast served as one of the co-directors for Camp MUN (Model United Nations) held on July 11 – 18 in 2018 in the Odeska Oblast.
Camp MUN is a seven-day camp for Ukrainian high school students, ages ranging between 12 – 18, to learn about international cooperation, the structure and processes of the United Nations, and critical international issues. Accommodation and translation was provided for the campers who were not confident in their English language abilities.
The campers represented every oblast in the country, with about 30% participation from conflict oblasts (Donetsk and Luhansk), as well as Crimea and IDPs from those areas. In 2018, Camp MUN received over 600 camper applications, and with the camp’s available resources, was only able to accept 10% of these applicants.
Camp MUN is an educational simulation in which participants can learn about diplomacy and international relations through organized debate conducted in the fashion of the actual United Nations. Camp participants represent different UN member states as delegates on the international stage, debating topics of international importance with the ultimate goal to pass resolutions that would address these issues.
Some of the committees and topics of debate in 2018 were: UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: IDPs, refugees and stateless persons in conflict), UN Women (How women impact economic healthcare), UNICEF (The rights of child immigrants and refugees), and UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: human trafficking and migrant smuggling).
Evan was in charge of recruiting counselors, inviting specialists and speakers, general management and logistics, and writing the LGL grants.
The camp was conducted at Moloda Gvardiya, a famous camp on the Ukrainian Black Sea, and Evan reminisces on the final night of Camp MUN.
“Somehow we managed to convince them [the venue] to let us have a bonfire on the beach,” Evan said. “Everyone finally had a chance to relax after a difficult week of tense debates, and new lifelong friendships were reaffirmed.”
This year, as Evan plans to relocate to a new site this summer as he extends his service into his third year, he will be passing the co-directing responsibilities to the next group of co-directors.
“I hope Camp MUN will continue to increase outreach and involve more participants from underserved areas, inspire campers and counselors to establish and support local community MUN events, and for everyone to come away from the camp with memories as beautiful and rewarding as last year,” Evan said.
Holly Nickerson, one of the next co-directors of Camp MUN and the first Program Chair of the Peace Corps Model UN Working Group, exudes optimism as she channels her efforts in tackling the massive feat of developing a highly sought-after, and high-priority summer camp.
Since the camp application opening last week, she has already received 188 applications from students from all over the country. According to Holly, this year Camp MUN is focused on two main themes: the role of technology, and global affairs and corruption.
“This is the time for the youth in Ukraine to learn these topical hard skills that are not taught in many Ukrainian schools,” Holly said. “The future of the country depends on them.”
Camp MUN 2019 will be held in Kyivska oblast on July 8th – 13th.
CAMP HEAL
Evan Sieradzki is a TEFL volunteer who extended for six months, currently serving in Chernihivska Oblast. Last year, Evan was the director of Camp HEAL (HIV/AIDS, Education, Activism, Leadership), a seven-day camp held on August 15 – 22nd in 2018.
The camp invited Ukrainian youth between the ages of 15 – 18 with various levels of English to Chernihivska Oblast. The youth in attendance represent students from the PEPFAR (U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) regions including Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa Oblasts. These regions are considered high-priority areas due to their high infection rates of HIV/AIDS.
Campers take part in lessons and activities about HIV/AIDS, activism, LGBT ally-ship, and stigmatizations of disadvantaged groups. In parallel with the core topics, some other opportunities include project design and management, self-esteem, comprehensive sex-education, bullying prevention, and diversity.
As the 2018 camp director, Evan talks about his favorite memory from last summer.
“[The best memory was] doing room checks with the other counselors and seeing the campers having a real camp experience,” he said.
According to Evan, Camp HEAL will be making some changes this year.
“This year, the format of the camp is changing a bit,” he said. “I hope that the changes made this year will push the campers even more so than the camp did in the past; for them to be even more active in their communities and to spread the mission and ideas of Camp HEAL past the summer and into the future.”
The majority of the funding for HIV/AIDS-related camps comes from PEPFAR grant funding. However, for Camp HEAL, transportation, memorabilia, and the possible camper scholarships are usually funded by outside donors.
This year, Camp HEAL will take place in the Carpathian Mountains on June 18 – 25.
CAMP WILD
Maritza De La Pena is a Group 50, extended TEFL volunteer serving in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. For two years she was the camp director for Camp WILD (Writing, Innovation, Leadership and Diversity), a writing, journalism and leadership camp for youth between the ages of 11 – 17. The camp was held in her home oblast in the Carpathian Mountains.
The mission of Camp WILD is to promote creative and critical thinking skills in Ukrainian youth through creative writing, journalism, photography and film, and to encourage diversity and women empowerment in Ukrainian youth through professional and creative development.
Last summer, only their second year as an official camp, they had over 100 applicants from all over Ukraine.
The week-long camp was held on August 21-27 and included daily electives and core courses, evening activities such as bonfires and talent shows and a nature excursion. The students took part in a variety of lessons: women in literature, blogging, short story writing, poetry, cinematography and film critiquing among many more.
Maritza recollects the beginning stages of Camp WILD with the original founder and now RPCV, Katie Fitzgerald.
“Together, we imagined a place where kids could express themselves creatively and freely through writing and other creative mediums,” Maritza said. “I am so happy to see children from all over Ukraine be so excited over Camp WILD and to see how much it’s impacted their lives.”
Camp WILD was funded by a Let Girls Learn grant, and was planned and developed by Maritza and two co-directors, Dara Gray and Ivan Zinoviev. This year, in 2019 as Maritza carries out her third year as a PCV, she will be passing the director baton over to Dara Gray and two co-directors, PCV Sam Luebbers, and Ukrainian native, Yevgeniya Gagarkina.
Maritza expresses her hopes for the future of Camp WILD.
“I’d love to see this camp continue to reach out and be accessible for kids in Ukraine who are normally unable to attend camps like this,” she explains. “Whether it be because of financial reasons, geographic location, lack of resources available to them, disabilities, or any other obstacles that might exist in their lives.”
Dara Gray, the upcoming director of Camp WILD, is busy planning and prepping for this summer with her two co-directors.
“I am looking forward to working with an amazing team of counselors in designing and implementing a camp that helps develop the next generation of Ukrainian young writers and storytellers,” she explains. “Hopefully we can motivate and inspire our campers to bring their creativity to the next level, both at camp and long after.”
This year, Camp WILD will be held in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast on June 13 – 19.
CAMP TOBE
Jacob Dowser, a Group 51 Youth Development Volunteer from Poltavska Oblast was the co-director of Camp TOBE (Teaching Our Boys to Excel) held on July 25 – 31, 2018 in the Poltava Oblast.
Camp TOBE is an all-boys camp for Ukrainian, male-identifying youth between the ages of 13 – 17 providing teaching opportunities about gender-related issues, mental and physical health, leadership and project design. The campers gain life skills in relation to ally-ship, intersectionality, emotional health, self-esteem, stress management, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS.
Jacob and his co-director, Jerome Allen, worked together on the development and implementation of the camp. Jacob was responsible for counselor and camper selection, medical and registration documentation, writing the LGL (Let Girls Learn) grant and managing the grant funds.
“We had a boy who held pretty negative opinions about LGBTQ+ individuals, and by the end of the camp, he has realized he was wrong and was looking forward to being an ally to LGBTQ+ individuals in the future,” Jacob said as he recalled his favorite memories from the Camp in 2018.
Jacob and Jerome will be passing the directing responsibilities onto two new PCVs, Karl Afrikian and Jahniece McCollum.
“I am hopeful that this camp can continue to change hearts of young boys and allow them to explore their own identities and the way gender plays a role in society,” Jacob said. “I believe that every young man in Ukraine has the incredible opportunity to live their story differently than previous generations. They have the potential to lead and advocate for a more egalitarian and empowered Ukrainian society; they just need to be guided and given the proper tools to do so. Camp TOBE can do just that!”
Karl Afrikian expresses his excitement as he moves into a new role as co-director of Camp TOBE.
“I am excited to be a part of an amazing team to teach boys in Ukraine about important global issues, gender equality, and personal and mental health,” Karl Afrikian said. “I feel like the topics brought up at Camp TOBE are crucial for the future of Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
Camp TOBE 2019 dates and locations are to be determined, but the co-directors and staff are hard at work planning and developing the project and all the details.
CAMP A.C.T
Nellie Petlick is a TEFL RPCV from Group 50 who served in Vinnyts’ka Oblast. Nellie now permanently lives in Kyiv, working as an outreach coordinator for EducationUSA. In 2017, Nellie co-founded Camp A.C.T (Aspiring Creative Thespians), an English-language theatre camp, and served as the co-director for two years.
Held on June 23 – July 1 in Vinnyts’ka Oblast, Camp A.C.T offered courses for students of ages 13 – 18 years-old with at least an intermediate level of English, capabilities to understand written texts, and comfortable with communicating with native speakers.
The camp is full of English-taught theatre classes including character development, set and costume design, musical theatre, script analysis, accents, and the most popular, improvisation. The camp included a project design and management component, teaching the campers how to utilize and apply theatre to their everyday lives, and how they could use theatre to implement projects in their communities.
Nellie, along with her co-director Jerome Allen, was responsible for training and hiring all staff and counselors, selecting campers, scheduling and housing logistics, and writing the PCPP grant for the funding of the camp.
Being a theatre professional herself, Nellie talks about her favorite moments from Camp A.C.T in 2018.
“It was amazing to see how much raw acting talent some of the campers had, especially since most of them have never acted before,” she said. “And they were doing it in a foreign language!”
As Nellie transitions out of her bounds as a PCV in the Vinnyts’ka oblast and takes her skills to Kyiv, Nellie hopes for the same sustainable tactic to be used in the camp this year.
“I hope the camp will focus more on spreading theatre beyond the bounds of Camp A.C.T,” Nellie said. “In the past two years, we’ve suggested that campers return to their communities and share what they’ve learned, but it was never a requirement. I would love if by the end of the camp, each camper has a concrete plan for a weekend workshop they want to lead, a drama club they want to start, or a performance they want to direct/organize, then they return to their communities, execute the project, and report on it to the Camp A.C.T directors.”
This year, two new PCVs will be serving as the co-directors of Camp A.C.T. Michael Smith and Brianna Moody, each from Group 52, will be heading up the development of Camp ACT 2019.
After being a counselor at Camp A.C.T in 2018, Brianna looks forward to utilizing her skills as the next co-director this year.
“My hopes for Camp A.C.T this year is to continue to foster and build upon the inclusive and accepting environment that Nellie and Jerome were able to create with the start of this camp,” she said. “I also hope that we can continue to empower Ukrainian youth through theatre and give them the necessary tools and confidence to bring it back to their communities and use it as a weapon for change.”
Michael Smith expands on what he believes to be such an important quality about Camp A.C.T.
“Not only do we train the students in professionalism in the theatre, but you see them actively learning about themselves as they work to bring their characters to life,” he said.
This year, Camp A.C.T will be held on June 15 – 23 in Kirogrovads’ka Oblast.
C.A.S.T.L.E CAMP
Katherine Fitch is a Group 49, extended Youth Development Volunteer currently living in Lvivska Oblast. CASTLE Camp (Creative Activities for Students Together Learning English) is a creative English camp that Katherine and her site colleagues dreamed, developed, and brought to life together. Since the founding of the camp and the primary funding was from Katherine’s site – a youth center – the properties of the camp belong to the youth center. This summer, CASTLE Camp will seek funding through a PCPP grant and community funding.
The mission of CASTLE Camp is to empower youth through English language, friendship, and activities.
CASTLE Camp is a week-long summer camp, and in 2018 was held in Rivnenska Oblast for Ukrainian students ages 16 to 18-years-old, accepting all English levels. The 30 total campers were divided into six groups, by English level: beginners, intermediate, and advanced. The campers took part in daily interactive courses teaching topics such as leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking all in English, with the co-facilitation of a Ukrainian native speaker. CASTLE Camp also offered “Level Booster” classes which served as topical lessons for each specific level group, that challenged the campers and their level of English.
“I often describe them [Level Boosters] as the heart of CASTLE Camp,” Katherine explained. “That is where we see the most growth of our campers and counselors.”
The Camp also offers various creative master classes that are chosen by the PCVs based off their personal hobbies and interests. Last year, one PCV taught the importance of nutrition and made smoothies and energy balls for his class!
One of Katherine’s favorite memories from CASTLE Camp 2018 involved a master class taught on touch and personal space.
“I was amazed how she communicated and taught the class,” she said. “It was inspiring for the participants.”
Katherine, also known as Katherine “The Dope One” Fitch, has been the director of five CASTLE Camps and mini-camps. As the director of the camp, her zany personality shines through the classes, evening activities and especially through the campers.
This year, Katherine is planning on passing the Director position off to another PCV, Scott Carpenter, and her official Peace Corps counterpart, Vasyl Shatruk. Katherine will participate as a counselor.
Scott reflects on his transition from being a counselor in 2018, to a co-director in 2019.
“I am excited to see the camp from a different perspective,” Scott said. “I know what all went into the game, so I think it will be a lot more gratifying when it all comes together.”
“This is the first year that I won’t be a part of organization, while there is sadness, I’m overwhelmed with excitement to see how the camp shapes itself after the simple idea I had my first year of service,” Katherine said. “I continuously hear from previous campers and counselors how the camp transformed their lives.”
This year, CASTLE Camp will be held at an actual castle in Khmelnystky Oblast on July 1 -9, 2019.
CAMP OLYMPUS
Caroline Kaufman is a recent TEFL RPCV from Group 50 who served in the Ternopilska Oblast. She served as a co-director for Camp Olympus. Camp Olympus is a sports-focused camp that promotes teamwork, leadership and gender equality for 7th – 11th grade students.
Camp Olympus vowed to be a sports camp for everyone – the entire community. The camp is geared toward all students, as the camp encompassed accessible conditions in terms of language (mainly local language, not English) and cost (as low as possible for participants).
Last year, Camp Olympus was held in the Ternopilska Oblast on June 2 – 7. The camp offered three American-centered core sports: baseball, basketball, and ultimate Frisbee.
The students were welcomed to camp on the first day with a camp-wide soccer tournament on the field. Throughout the week there were day sessions on nutrition, teamwork, gender equality, leadership, wrestling, English, yoga, theatre improvisation games, tabletop games, calisthenics, American football, and team-building relays. On the final day, the campers divided into self-selected teams, and took part in a tournament of all three of the core sports: baseball, basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee.
Now being stateside, Caroline reminisces on her favorite memory of Camp Olympus in 2018.
“My favorite memory of camp was when my kids told me that they wanted to teach baseball to everyone at our school,” she said.
The camp holds high value at both large-scale overnight camps, and as mini, day-camps at PCV sites. The large camps exist not only to provide a concentrated experience for participants, but to inspire participants to take these activities back to their own communities. Mini-camps are useful because of the low cost and the ability to include a large number of participants from one local area, also including local adult facilitators.
“Large camps can be an important starting point and an excellent use of donor funds in order to lead to effective mini-camps all over Ukraine,” said Paul Lord, an extended Group 48 Youth Development Volunteer, and co-founder of Camp Olympus.
This summer, Paul hopes that mini-camps will emerge all over the country, allowing students of all variations to participate in this wholesome, active camp.
Keep an eye out on the RPCV Alliance for Ukraine Facebook page for posts and news regarding the donation opportunities for these 2019 summer camps!