The fun days of summer

Manama

Learning is not always boring. It can be fun too. Over 1500 students are participating in Bahrain’s largest summer camp to learn new exciting arts and sciences.

Youth City 2030, which is in its sixth edition, has attracted hundreds of students from age 9 to 25. Various arts and sciences are being taught at the camp by experienced teachers.  The classes include painting, leadership, public relations, cooking, fashion designing, technology, writing, video production and photography.

The camp, which will run till 28 August, is organized under four sections; Art, Science, Leadership and Media."The turnout has been great. The students are impressed that we have over 100 programmes and they pick according to what they like. Currently we are having elections for heads of each section. The heads will be given various responsibilities of functions of the meeting. This will teach them responsibility of being leaders as well as give them the experience of earning the right to lead their team," an organizer said.

An instructor at the camp, Mahmoud Badour, said he was teaching the students leadership."This is a great opportunity to teach the students leadership as they are away from their academic responsibilities. We are teaching the students the basics of leadership and teamwork. We have many activities including games.  They are also asked to give speeches in front of a group,” he said.

 He said that many kids joined because of the pressure from their parents.“But now they are enjoying themselves. We give individual attention to each student and work on their strengths and weaknesses,” he added.

Another unique aspect of Youth City 2030 is the large number of students who are volunteering to make the event a success. More than a hundred students have volunteered to help organize the event.

 What the volunteers have to say!

 Mohammed Ahmed 

"This has already been an enriching experience. I chose to come and volunteer here because I wanted to be active during the summer vacations. If I did not take part here, I would probably be at home playing video games or wasting time in other activities. So I am glad I am here. Here I am helping in the overall event organization. It has taught me many lessons and has given me good experience."

Amna Abdulmalik 

"It was a little bit hard at first to organize the children and to direct them and to get them to follow instructions. But later, it got much easier. This is the fist time I am working with children and I find this a wonderful experience. The children are beautiful and sweet and I loved working here."

AbdulAzeez Jassim 

"I work in the art section where we teach the students colouring, painting and handicrafts. For older students we teach courses such as Arabic calligraphy, oil painting, mosaic as well. We have highly qualified teachers who do the advanced teaching. I teach children in the lower levels. I also help in organizing the whole event, which has been a great experience for me."