Youth Corps Canada: Camp Vanadzor in full swing!

Last week, the Armenian Youth Federation of Canada began its own Youth Corps camp in Armenia’s third largest city, Vanadzor. The two-week-long camp is being operated by 10 young volunteers from Canada and caters to local youth from underpriviledged families and orphanages.  We’ll be covering the progress of the Camp Vanadzor here on the Youth Corps blog, but you can also follow them here at: ayfcampvanatsor.wordpress.com

Voghtchouyn!

Hope everyone back in Canada is doing well. Our group of 9 “oukhdavors” has comfortably settled in Vanatsor by now. Our jampar began on Monday morning; 50 kids showed up despite it being “Merelots”. They met us with smiles and curiosity as we explained the purpose of the jampar and let them in on what we’ve planned over the course of the next two weeks. On the first day, the counselors took time to learn more about the kids, get accustomed to terms and expressions to better understand the children… Since then, we’ve done arts and crafts, science experiments, learned “Mshag Panvor”, celebrated Vartavar and visited the local church with the group. As the days go by, word gets around about our initiative and it’s becoming very difficult to turn the newcomers away each morning as we’ve reached maximum capacity with 90 kids attending our camp daily.

Mingling with these kids is truly fulfilling. They are full of energy and have such interest for everything we present them. It is refreshing to see them walk through the doors of our camp each morning, proudly sporting their t-shirts and greeting us with a “barev unger – ungerouhi”.

I can’t wait to see how things will unravel over the course of the next two weeks… Stay tuned!

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