MAN CAMP
Hello, hello friends and enemies!
This is not the most important email you'll receive this year, this week, or even today, but I'd appreciate it if you'd read it in its entirety before deleting it. After all, I hate mass emails just as much as you.
My time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan is coming to a close soon - it's still surprising to me how quickly time has past here. That's not to say I'm busy 24/7 though: a few nights ago, I spent three hours trying to build a card house. I couldn't even make one level. Guess my future in architecture is not in the cards. So to speak.
If you follow my mess of a blog, you'll know a little about my final project here in Central Asia. Along with four other volunteers, I have been planning a Boys' Leadership Camp to be held in the middle of June. I'll first explain my thought process in coming up with the camp: recognize a situation (what?), assess the problems (why?), and derive solutions (how?):
Situation - Young men in Kyrgyzstan graduate from secondary school without plans for their futures.
Problems - Lack of direction, role models, and confidence.
Solution - Boys' Leadership Camp.
As it is a Central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan suffers from a hierarchal gender system where men are treated above women. It's a cultural issue that they are slowly changing (remember, less than 100 years ago, the States had the same problem - to some extent, it still exists today). Past groups of volunteers recognized this problem and offered numerous programs to young women in the country in hopes of building their confidence and expanding their vision for what a modern woman in Kyrgyzstan can be. Unfortunately, several generations of volunteers neglected the young mens' role, instead catering only to girls.
This is where Boys' Leadership Camp comes in. From June 11-15, we will be hosting 50 young men from grades 7-9 (ages 12-15) from all over Kyrgyzstan for a week of sessions and activities that seek to educate young Kyrgyz men about their roles in society and possibilities for their futures. Each day will focus on a different theme: one for health, one for career planning, one for how to act around women. Encompassing all of these themes will be our central focus on leadership, and how a young man should carry himself - with pride, confidence, and optimism for his future. Guest speakers have been handpicked from Peace Corps, schools, and NGOs to provide the boys with fantastic role models to look up to. Sessions will be held in Kyrgyz and Russian to eliminate possible language barriers and provide 100% understanding of the message.
Let's call Boys' Leadership Camp, Man Camp. After all, it's about becoming men. Man Camp will not focus solely on sessions; instead, we are looking to create an American-style summer camp. Sporting activities like basketball, soccer, football, wiffle ball, and relay races will be held every day with a huge, round robin-style tournament held the final day. We hope to foster a sense of teamwork and competition between each cabin of 10 boys. Each cabin of boys will come up with their own team names and cheers - hopefully something like, "Team Bruce Lee" or "Team Arnold Schwarzenegger" or "Team Jean Claude Van Damme." Manly. And no, we won't be playing volleyball at Man Camp. Volleyball is for girls.
Jokes aside, my four volunteer co-planners and I have put in a lot of time and work into Boys' Leadership Camp and it's an extremely important project to us. As is Peace Corps policy, we were required to obtain a certain percentage of the camp's funding from local sources. This aspect of the camp has been fulfilled. The Rotary Club branch in Bishkek offered to fund part of the camp after reviewing our budget. In turn, we agreed to bring 5 orphans from a local orphanage to the camp. All class, baby.
Now comes the difficult part of this email. For Peace Corps Partnership grants, a large percentage of the total budget must be provided by outside sources. These sources usually include friends, family, corporations, and the Trix Rabbit. Our total budget for the camp is $7713 USD. The percentage required through the PCPP grant is $5334 USD. Peace Corps has posted a link:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.projdetail&projdesc=307-076
...on its website where you can go and donate funds to Boys' Leadership Camp. I'm not asking for $5334 from one person - remember, this is a five man project, so if my end can pull down 1/5 of the funds, we'd be in good shape.
You all know me, so you know it's not in my nature to ask for money. But I believe this is a great project, one that will change the lives of these 55 young men. An event like Boys' Leadership Camp will stay with these boys for their entire lives. Any contribution will help enormously whether it's $2, $5, or $10. I'm laughing as I write this because I realize all of my friends are young, broke, just-out-of-college folks haha. But seriously, anything helps, guys and gals. If you're can't donate at all, think about passing on this message to those who are in position to help.
Thanks for reading, and please check out the link if you have time. If anyone would like a copy of the budget in order to corroborate prices ("$5000?! Where's the money going??"), please ask, and I'd be happy to forward it to you.
Take care, and see you all soon.
Now you know,
Sean
ps - If you do donate, please send me an email telling me so. I would like to thank you in person (donations on the Peace Corps website are all anonymous in terms of donater and amount).
This is not the most important email you'll receive this year, this week, or even today, but I'd appreciate it if you'd read it in its entirety before deleting it. After all, I hate mass emails just as much as you.
My time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan is coming to a close soon - it's still surprising to me how quickly time has past here. That's not to say I'm busy 24/7 though: a few nights ago, I spent three hours trying to build a card house. I couldn't even make one level. Guess my future in architecture is not in the cards. So to speak.
If you follow my mess of a blog, you'll know a little about my final project here in Central Asia. Along with four other volunteers, I have been planning a Boys' Leadership Camp to be held in the middle of June. I'll first explain my thought process in coming up with the camp: recognize a situation (what?), assess the problems (why?), and derive solutions (how?):
Situation - Young men in Kyrgyzstan graduate from secondary school without plans for their futures.
Problems - Lack of direction, role models, and confidence.
Solution - Boys' Leadership Camp.
As it is a Central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan suffers from a hierarchal gender system where men are treated above women. It's a cultural issue that they are slowly changing (remember, less than 100 years ago, the States had the same problem - to some extent, it still exists today). Past groups of volunteers recognized this problem and offered numerous programs to young women in the country in hopes of building their confidence and expanding their vision for what a modern woman in Kyrgyzstan can be. Unfortunately, several generations of volunteers neglected the young mens' role, instead catering only to girls.
This is where Boys' Leadership Camp comes in. From June 11-15, we will be hosting 50 young men from grades 7-9 (ages 12-15) from all over Kyrgyzstan for a week of sessions and activities that seek to educate young Kyrgyz men about their roles in society and possibilities for their futures. Each day will focus on a different theme: one for health, one for career planning, one for how to act around women. Encompassing all of these themes will be our central focus on leadership, and how a young man should carry himself - with pride, confidence, and optimism for his future. Guest speakers have been handpicked from Peace Corps, schools, and NGOs to provide the boys with fantastic role models to look up to. Sessions will be held in Kyrgyz and Russian to eliminate possible language barriers and provide 100% understanding of the message.
Let's call Boys' Leadership Camp, Man Camp. After all, it's about becoming men. Man Camp will not focus solely on sessions; instead, we are looking to create an American-style summer camp. Sporting activities like basketball, soccer, football, wiffle ball, and relay races will be held every day with a huge, round robin-style tournament held the final day. We hope to foster a sense of teamwork and competition between each cabin of 10 boys. Each cabin of boys will come up with their own team names and cheers - hopefully something like, "Team Bruce Lee" or "Team Arnold Schwarzenegger" or "Team Jean Claude Van Damme." Manly. And no, we won't be playing volleyball at Man Camp. Volleyball is for girls.
Jokes aside, my four volunteer co-planners and I have put in a lot of time and work into Boys' Leadership Camp and it's an extremely important project to us. As is Peace Corps policy, we were required to obtain a certain percentage of the camp's funding from local sources. This aspect of the camp has been fulfilled. The Rotary Club branch in Bishkek offered to fund part of the camp after reviewing our budget. In turn, we agreed to bring 5 orphans from a local orphanage to the camp. All class, baby.
Now comes the difficult part of this email. For Peace Corps Partnership grants, a large percentage of the total budget must be provided by outside sources. These sources usually include friends, family, corporations, and the Trix Rabbit. Our total budget for the camp is $7713 USD. The percentage required through the PCPP grant is $5334 USD. Peace Corps has posted a link:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.projdetail&projdesc=307-076
...on its website where you can go and donate funds to Boys' Leadership Camp. I'm not asking for $5334 from one person - remember, this is a five man project, so if my end can pull down 1/5 of the funds, we'd be in good shape.
You all know me, so you know it's not in my nature to ask for money. But I believe this is a great project, one that will change the lives of these 55 young men. An event like Boys' Leadership Camp will stay with these boys for their entire lives. Any contribution will help enormously whether it's $2, $5, or $10. I'm laughing as I write this because I realize all of my friends are young, broke, just-out-of-college folks haha. But seriously, anything helps, guys and gals. If you're can't donate at all, think about passing on this message to those who are in position to help.
Thanks for reading, and please check out the link if you have time. If anyone would like a copy of the budget in order to corroborate prices ("$5000?! Where's the money going??"), please ask, and I'd be happy to forward it to you.
Take care, and see you all soon.
Now you know,
Sean
ps - If you do donate, please send me an email telling me so. I would like to thank you in person (donations on the Peace Corps website are all anonymous in terms of donater and amount).
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 8:46 PM.
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