Summer Camps more than just summer fun

With the intensity and excitement of the summer, youth around Yemen are exposed to more than just relaxation away from studies. Thanks to summer camps and centers organized by the Yemeni government youth are spending free time in a productive way and keeping away from the negative entities that seek to exploit them. Young people have found their voice through programs that nobody has ever thought possible. 

To get young people more aware of the importance of loyalty towards their country and to instill national values with aims to prevent against being targeted by terrorism and extremism, the government holds summer camps in all governorates of Yemen. 

In July 2008 the Cabinet approved the budget for summer camps and centers for young people. The budget of this year has increased around YR 800 million more then last year; the budget of this year was round one billion Yemeni Riyals, according to the Ministry of Youths and Sport headed by Ahmed al-Ashari, deputy minister and the committee director of camps.

More and more students have joined such camps in order to kill their free time and equip themselves with more skills. More than 185,000 students have joined camps according to Ashari. 

"Youths must be given more attention because they are the present and future," said Dr. Ali Majawar, Prime Minister. “They are the basis of the development, so they have to be improved physically and mentally. Young people should do effective things in their luxury time in order to prevent them from listening to unimportant things and associating with terrorist activities.” 

The elective program of President Saleh emphasizes on paying more attention to youths, stated Majawar. Thus, the government held such camps to equip youths with skills for their sake and of their country. He said that youths should be connected and work together in order to overcome difficulties they might face from groups promoting terrorism amongst their peers. They are deceived by these ideas under the guise of Islamic commands [Islam does not order us to hurt the innocent]. 

Majawar called upon responsible bodies to draw particular attention to youths and work together in order to protect children from destructive ideas that will damage communities.  

Young people who have taken part in these camps said that they truly benefited from the experience. “Summer camps really give the youth a chance to improve their skills, as well as spend their free time safely,” said Abdullah Mohammed of Damar who took part in summer camps. “We have learned many things like using computers.  You know when you have many things to develop your skills it is really great. I was really interested in summer camp and benefited a lot from it.” 

Summer centers are different from summer camps according to Mohammed who also took part in a summer center. “In camps you can learn many things while in centers you just learn poetry, drawing and compute skills. What I really like in the centers is that many youths of all governorates of Yemen take part in the same center, which help us to get to know each other and know more about others experiences. In this summer center I have developed my drawing ability. I have drawn many pictures.” 

Ibrahim al-Kohalny agreed with Mohammed and said that he got a chance to know many youths of different governorates which help him to know about their experiences. “ In this center I have learned to be on time and listen to orders from those older than me. I used to go and come in any time I like, but here they forced me to be on time which really helps me to change my way of living.  Depending on yourself is another thing, we used to depend on our parents in anything we need, but here it is different. You have to depend on yourself and experience every thing.” 

The government says youths are the backbone of any country; therefore, they should be given the chance to prove themselves in order to serve their country. Others say that the government does not care about youths, they care about their votes. As a result, it pays more attention to young people just to be sure youth will vote for the ruling party. 

"The Yemeni government does not pay attention to youth; it cares more about important people such as sheikhs of tribes that can help the government to get what it wants. If you look at the projects done to help youth, you find out that they serve the government itself not youth. To make it clear for you, if you think of summer camps which aim at equipping youth and improve their loyalty towards their country, you will find that they serve the government itself. By holding such camps, the government aims at getting youth votes,” said Dr. Adel al-Sharjabi, a psychology professor at Sana'a University.

"The government has to know that youths need more services to help them prevent things like unemployment which has become a fierce threat to Yemeni young people. The government should pay particular attention to education which is also the backbone of the developing of youths themselves," added al-Sharjabi.  

"There are many reasons behind unemployment in Yemen. Two of them are urgent and crucial: the lack of governmental policies related to improving education and the deficient investment in Yemen that deeply affects newcomers to the labor market, namely the youth," said al-Sharjabi "In relation to education, illiteracy in Yemen is still too high, which adds to the problem of entering the labor market. Educators in Yemeni do not equip students with the skills that they need in the labor market; therefore there are no new and urgent specialties that the labor market seeks."

"We are not supposed to expect these youths to do something effective as long as we do not give them the chance. They are the future and their conduct will be clearly seen in the future, so that, we should encourage and improve their skills to find work," explained al-Sharjabi. 

"If youth do not find the help and encouragement from the government, they might become criminals. Nowadays, Yemeni youths have [too much] free time; they do not know what to do. Thus, most of them are busy with Sadah war and the other are busy with protests not knowing that some are protest against the government."

Some youths agree with al-Sharjabi and said what they are planning to acquire from summer cams certifications. “I think I should use this certificate (after finishing the course) for chips or sandwiches,” said a student in one of summer camp. One of his classmates turned to him laughing and said in a funny way “Keep it to get a job after leaving this place. Do not you know that you can get a wonderful job by having this certificate?”  Another one jumped up and said "If I had a sports certificate it would be better for me then having this awful paper.”

Teachers said that even if students will not benefit from the certificate, it is enough to spend their free time by doing productive things. “They had a chance to study English, computers and many other things which is great. Sure, they do not need a certificate from summer camps to get jobs, but in my opinion spending free time equipping themselves with skills is better,” said Hanan Saleh a primary teacher. 

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