A crash course on Canada
Camp for Syrian refugee children mixes fun with courses in English and cultural norms
TORONTO — It’s a familiar chant belted out at summer camps, but the call-and-response uttered at one Toronto day camp on a sticky July day is hesitant, even shy.
Three tries later, these Syrian children gel into a chorus.
“Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Weeeeeeee’re great!” they holler, letting loose with exuberant cheers. The fun and games are a key step in easing their transition into a strange country with unfamiliar customs.
H.appi Camper founder Mazen El-Baba says he tried to design a getaway that would offer the staples of any summer camp: Drama, arts and crafts, and sports.
But it would also offer much-needed lessons: Intensive literacy classes, a crash course in Canadian cultural norms and self-esteem exercises.
That last is possibly the most challenging, given the fact that most of these children — 75 in all, ranging in age from five to 15 — have been through horrific traumas.
El-Baba says they clearly bear the scars. When confronted with something they’ve done wrong, it’s not uncommon to hear them say, “I should go kill myself” or “I should go stab myself or shoot myself,” says El-Baba. “An eight-year-old and nine-year-old saying, ‘I want to stab myself,’ it’s really hard to hear that.”
Activities were designed with the help of mental-health professionals and doctors.
The biggest goal is to let these kids be kids and have the opportunity to let loose and have fun.
Soft-spoken 11-year-old Hanin Jaamour says she’s learning a lot, and that’s easing her anxiety about school in the fall.
She and her family landed in February and she went to school for three months. But she didn’t like it at all.
She’s excited about entering Grade 6, but also scared.
“This year it’s going to be harder for English because we’re going to be learning more things,” she frets. “Here it’s a very diverse culture. You have many people coming from various different countries and backgrounds and religions. Back home we don’t have the mixing of boys and girls and this is completely new, which is amazing.”
Camp supervisor Windemere Jarvis says she’s impressed by how eager the kids are to learn new customs.
They’ve bared their souls everyday, she says, pointing to painful anecdotes about bombings, destroyed homes and grief that can send her home “crying all night.”
“I was talking to a friend of mine and they said, ‘You know what, I think the most important thing is when you hear these stories is not to cry because that is their reality. Just let them talk and let them know that what happened to them was OK and that they’re here now and we want them to be super happy here and feel like this is safe,”’ says Jarvis.
The athletic 21-year-old has taken a keen interest in boosting self-esteem among the girls, noting that a clear gender bias “is very visible.”
“The other day we lined them up and immediately all the boys went to the front of the line and the girls went behind them,” she notes.
She worries about how the boys might be disciplined for such behaviour at a Toronto school. “It’s not their fault,” she says. Jarvis shows them girls can do anything and praises female achievements.
“I think that’s something they’re a little hesitant toward but they’re not resistant,” she says. “And I think that they definitely — the girls especially — want to be empowered and change.”
Courses focus on how to resolve conflict, how to work in a team, and how to build friendships.
Admission is free but the waiting list is 200kids long.
El-Baba says the program is largely funded through a $36,000 federal grant. Private donations help pay for transportation, a couple of food banks have supplied snacks, and Canadian Tire has donated sporting equipment.
He hopes to generate more money to fund a follow-up program once school starts. Counsellors would visit each family weekly to check up on how the kids are faring.
“I was shocked and amazed by how resilient they are,” he says. “Hopefully by the end of this month they’ll have an idea there’s other things in the world that they still haven’t learned or experienced that are good.”
An eight-year-old and nine-year-old saying, ‘I want to stab myself,’ it’s really hard to hear that.” H.appi Camper founder Mazen El-Baba