JREDS - Events - Youth Camp

Summer Camp Project for the year 2004
November 18-20, 2004

Introduction

The Royal Marine Conservation Society of Jordan (JREDS) is the first and only marine non-governmental organization in the kingdom. JREDS is dedicated to conserving, rehabilitating and enhancing the marine eco-system in Jordan through grass roots participation, promoting sustainable management of natural marine resources, lobbying and awareness generation.

One of JREDS main objective is to protect the underwater life through building awareness and education about the causes of damage of marine life. JREDS believes that awareness and education is, and will remain, the most important element especially for youth.

Concentrating on this important sector, JREDS is providing a forum for youth to exchange their ideas and ways to protect the environment through the “Youth Intervention Program”. This program aims to provide capacity building for youth to become more professional in working in the fields of environment.

With the intention of achieving the above mentioned goals, the “Youth Environmental Camp” is going to be implemented several times a year in order to build the characters and educate the youth on conserving and taking care of our natural heritage.

The first JREDS youth camp was implemented during the period from 18 – 20 November 2004. It gathered 15 participants from different parts of the kingdom. The camp was based in Aqaba and the accommodation was in a hotel in the city so that the participants could live and completely be involved in the real life of the local community of Aqaba.

The participants were a mixed group of 13 boys and 2 girls aged between 9-13 years. They came from different social, economic and educational backgrounds. During the camp, the kids were exposed and trained on marine environmental topics; the diversity of marine species, sea pollution, the relevance of marine species to our lives, types of corals and their formation and the role of youth in conserving the marine life.

The program mainly concentrated on the hands-on learning experience. All participants were involved in various activities which aimed to:

•	Build the team spirit among participants.
•	Implant the love of environment and marine life.
•	Emphasis the importance of taking care of the environment.
•	Build up the youth’s knowledge on biodiversity ecosystem issues in general and marine restraints in specific.

Activities

Most activities were held in the Aqaba Marine Park/ Visitors center, which is a children’s education center in Aqaba designed to include interactive tools and games that involve the children in various activities to protect the marine life. In addition the center includes hands-on tools for the children to reinforce their present and future roles in sustaining the environment.

First Day (18/11/04)

As soon as the 15 participants gathered in the hotel, the camp was launched with an Ice breaking activity, so as the inert atmosphere between them is removed. Participants had the opportunity to introduce and present themselves to each other by drawing their personal “coat of arms”. Each one expressed to his colleagues how he/she sees himself, their interests in life and expectations from the camp. From this activity, we could get a general view of all participants’ personalities, and tried to carry out the activities which will meet their expectations and lead us to our goals at the same time.

As part of the ice breaking activity, participants were briefly introduced to the marine life too. They were splitted to 4 groups; one person from each group has to enter the room with a stick on his/her back with the name and a picture of one of the following marine creatures: dolphin, shark, octopus and a clown fish. They must roam around asking questions to discover their “own” marine creature. Each group then, was given the name of the marine creature.

Participants were given a brief description and information about each one; their behavior and defense attitudes, reproduction, habitats and other interesting information. The aim of this activity is to increase the level of their knowledge with the types and characteristics of the marine creatures and to exchange the information they have about each one.

Second Day (19/11/2004)

The second day started with a guided tour in the marine park. A guide from the park presented them with new information about the Gulf of Aqaba, its different species, the diversity of corals, in addition to the damage to the marine life and the pollution threating it.

They visited the park’s sections and were introduced to interactive tools and games that aim to protect the underwater life.

The participants visited also the shell museum which includes an international collection of rare shells. The guide gave a clear explanation about the shells and their importance to our marine heritage.

“Why there are lots of pollutants in the sea?... Why do not we complain against the industries constructed near the sea?... why do people throw the cans in the sea??...How can we reduce the damage on the corals?...What should we do to protect the marine species?”

Getting such inspiring questions and comments from the participants after the snorkeling and submarine tour showed that we could implant in each one of them the feeling of responsibility towards protecting the marine life and they felt the ownership towards the sea and the marine species.

Both activities had the largest impacts on the kids; the snorkeling gave them the opportunity to do things that they never did before such as learning how to deal with the kits and breathing through the gaggles, as well as watching the real sea life and the diversity of school of fish through diving, on top of discovering the beauty of the coral reefs in the submarine, where the group went on a guided tour to explore the under water life of the sea for 3 hours. They explored the diversity of the sea life such as sea urchins, the octopus, different species of fish and other marine creatures, as well as the pollution in the sea and other vital observations are brought to their minds during the sea tour.

After snorkeling and before going to the submarine tour, participants were introduced to different types of corals through an outside session, near the sea, that mainly described their different types, importance, formation, growth and damage.

This activity was important for them as their awareness about the marine life lack such crucial information about the precious corals that they must know.

Finding Nemo movie was ideal to watch to end this day that was full of marine environmental information, it helped the participants to reinforce all the important environmental messages they got during the day.

Their discovery visit to the sea through the snorkeling and the submarine tour together with the story of the small clown fish, which was taken away from home, removed the dust and showed them the real human impacts to the marine environment and marine creatures, which will stick on their minds especially after seeing it in existent and again on an animated, interesting movie.

Third Day (20/11/2004)

During the last day, and with the aim of building up the team work spirit in the participants and raising the camping skills, we prepared a four challenging games that made them more enthusiasm to learn, help each other and work to acquire their target as one team.

Ending the camp with an assessment conversation helped us to get ideas for the logo and the name of the camp for the coming years. Each group draw their best image of the marine environment and wrote a small quote about the camp. It helped them to refresh their ideas and think of the most marine creatures they liked or felt that it is endangered.

Examples of the quotes they wrote: “The Royal Marine Conservation Society or the Extinction” other group wrote “The Sea Camp” the third group suggested to be “Nemo’s Camp”. There were also other nice ideas for the logo. Attached is the feedback of some participants.

Participants, through this small round table, expressed the most things they liked in the camp and other things that they don’t like. Following are their comments and ideas briefly, as all the kids had nearly the same comments, which were:

What they liked most

•	The diving into the sea (some of them did it for the first time).
•	Learning about the diversity of fishes (their colors, types, way of living).
•	Submarine tour and the fabulous corals.
•	The enjoyable way the camp was supervised.
•	Making new friends from neighboring communities.

What they don’t like most

•	The pollution they saw in the sea.
•	Seeing people not aware about the importance of marine environment and throwing the trash in the sea.
•	Too short.

Their recommendations for next year:

•	Have more time for snorkeling.
•	Make the camp duration longer (4 days at least).
•	Go through the diving experience.

Attached is the feedback we got from some of the participants.

Observations of the youth camp’s supervisor

JREDS youth camp was a great experience to me and to all JREDS staff who participated in it, where six JREDS staff participated in this camp.

It raised the team work spirit between the staff; we worked as one group, which is one of the most important reasons of what made the camp a successful project.

Working together towards one clear objective, which is protecting the marine environment in Aqaba through raising the awareness in every child and trying hard to make the marine life a precious treasure for each one to protect it, is one step to approach a sustainable Jordan.

Implementing such camp is a vital way to build up the awareness for the kids. It’s impacts are different than indoor workshops when they observe everything in real and they get the chance to see, feel and then love the underwater life.

I think JREDS is on the way to get its objectives in building up the capacities of youth to become more professional in working in the fields of environment and raise a new generation which will preserve our natural heritage and make it better.