Our weekend could not have started on a better note.
After walking around the City on Friday — visiting Rockefeller Center, The Museum of Modern Art and St. Patrick’s Cathedral — we were invited to go to a barbecue at Huntington, Long Island, on Saturday.
Dr. Scanlon and his wife, who have been good friends of the World Youth Alliance, generously opened their home to the campers for a fun day by the pool. It was a day full of games, music, conversations, and of course, delicious BBQ. It was the perfect way to get to know each other better. Conversations centered around cultural peculiarities such as food, or certain words and habits that are different in each camper or counselor’s home country.
On Tuesday, the campers participated in a model negotiation following their training on maternal health. They were assigned to various interest groups (Donor recipient country X, Donor country Y, an NGO for reproductive rights, and the World Youth Alliance) and had the task of negotiating in writing and through dialogue what the main components of a good maternal health program should be. Only with consensus would the program be implemented within donor recipient country X. The common consensus was that they had all learned a lot, and it was a good activity for them to not only understand how negotiations work but also to realize how carefully words need to be chosen when writing official documents on political and international issues.
On Wednesday, campers attended a real negotiation, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) that took place at the United Nations. Wearing their professional best, campers walked around the United Nations and listened attentively at the Conference. After taking diligent notes throughout the proceedings, the campers then answered questions about human dignity issues that WYA staff had previously prepared for them. It was a productive day and a new experience for many of us, and we all enjoyed taking part in a conference at the United Nations.
Now that the final days of the camp are drawing to a close, it is time for the last lessons (today the topic was HIV/AIDS), and to start getting ready for the imminent Talent Show on Friday night. Most of the campers are keeping their presentations a secret, so we look forward to being surprised and entertained by this amazing and talented group of campers.
We will keep you updated!
