When I first joined EP in 2002, EP held its first camp. After that, the camp became an annual affair on our calendar. This year’s EP camp held in Tampines ITE is our third camp. Each of the past 3 camps was very different from the others and left me unique experiences and memories. This year, for the 1st time, because of the joint organization with Young Men Christian Association (YMCA), we had new volunteers from YMCA and Anglo Chinese Junior College (ACJC) joining us for the camp. Also for the 1 st time, our trainees’ siblings participated in the camp which had hitherto involved only trainees and volunteers.

The theme for the camp is “DIY – Do It Yourself”. Some of the activities gave our trainees opportunities to try out new things. For instance, they had to use a bread maker to prepare their own sandwiches for breakfast. They got to personalize their own camp T-shirts by designing their own iron-on print. They also made their own paper bags and musical shakers during Art & Craft time. The highlight of DIY activities was of course the DIY tea-break when trainees and volunteers have to cook hot dogs and instant soup in the open using solid fuel and mess-tins. This activity proved to be a bit too challenging for some of our trainees who thus got to enjoy the food without doing the cooking. But it’s really a unique experience and our more capable trainees and the siblings enjoyed it pretty much.

With the inclusion of the trainees’ siblings, this year’s camp was livelier and noisier. The original intention was to allow the siblings to interact with other trainees. However, to be honest, the siblings spent more time interacting with one another rather than with other trainees, probably because the siblings themselves were still quite young and playful. But still, it’s interesting to know more of the trainee’s siblings better, and it’s very touching to see that most of them really take care of their siblings well. Even though we have put the siblings in groups different from their own ID siblings, you still see them “gravitating” towards their own siblings especially during meal times and bed time.

The YMCA volunteers were involved in programme planning while the ACJC volunteers stayed with us throughout the camp. Even though almost all of them were new in interacting with ID children, some of them showed remarkable commitment and responsibility in the way they helped our trainees and I was really impressed. It’s interesting to watch how my trainee interacted with the ACJC volunteer attached to him, and it made me realized how much in certain ways my trainee has grown, and how in certain ways he’s still as naughty as before.