Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust, which has been organising an annual youth summer camp for the last 18 years, had this year’s event between January 13 to 17, for 105 children aged 6 to 14 years, at the Mount Roskill War Memorial Hall in Auckland.

The five-day event was made possible by over 20 volunteers organising activities with an an underlying purpose-to develop the overall personality of the young minds focussing on teaching them life skills like leadership, community involvement, and tolerance and understanding of cultural diversity at an early age through activities and workshops.

Some of the events and activities centred around art and craft, outdoor sports events by professional Sports club, dance, yoga, acrobatics, extempore, singing, and meditation.

There were also workshops by Chinmaya Mission, first aid training on how to deal with emergencies and perform CPR by St John’s New Zealand, Orchard to Lunch Box workshop by the Auckland Council Waste Wise Management, Dare to Explore Reading Program by the Auckland Council library, Be a Junior Detective by NZ Police, as well as workshops to promote intercultural exchange by Mt Roskill Chinese Group, and many more.

The Children were also taken out for a day-trip. Chairperson of Bhartiya Samaj, Jeet Suchdev, who was extremely pleased at the outcome of the camp noted, “We are very happy with the feedback received from the children and parents. In fact, some of the parents even requested us to extend this program to a two-week camp from next year onwards as their children always look forward to coming to this camp.”

-TIN Bureau