Our annual youth camp took place in Tamera from August 2nd until August 15th. 43 young people aged 13 to 18, from 8 different countries including Portugal, Germany, Brazil, and the US took part. In connection with the slogan of the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement ‘system change not climate change’ we dedicated our time to questions like: What does system change mean? How can it look in the different areas of life? Into what system do we want to change? Can we find a picture, a vision of life, that we can love and that together we can take a stand for?
We started with an outlook into the world asking about capitalism. What does it mean? What logic is behind it and how does it work? Why are capitalism and climate change so closely and inseparably interlinked? Afterwards we took time to look into the social aspects of human existence. What does system change mean in the areas of community, love and friendship? Why is it necessary to include these aspects if we want to have a long term effect on climate change?
We started with daily forum work in the first week, offering a chance for the young people to open and show themself in a circle with topics that move in their hearts. For many it was possible to recognise that they are actually not alone with their questions, problems, wishes and beautiful moments, but that many of the others feel exactly the same way.
In the second week we started with 3 days in the Tamera’s solar test field. We divided into 7 subgroups in which our young people could explore theories and practices in the following areas: solar cooking and healthy nutrition, mirror technology as an energy source, water-retention, upcycling and sustainable fashion, regional autonomy and closed energy circles, compost-building, biogas systems and much more that Tamera provides as examples of solutions to move out of the system of exploitation into cooperation with our ecosystem and the planet. At the end of the 3 days the subgroups presented their experiences and what they had learned to each other. In this way everybody could get an insight into the different aspects.
During the last days we had a writing workshop in which we collected everything that happened during the camp along with what the teenagers had experienced and learned. They wrote in response to the following questions: How could a peaceful planet look? What could the next steps towards manifesting it be? Where do I see myself in that process? Using the material that we gathered and created we finished our youth camp with a beautiful presentation with choir, texts, poems, songs, rap and dance in front of a big international audience and the Tamera community. It was exciting for the young people to show the adults the thoughts and dreams which they came up with through the youth camp. In the end they received a lot of applause and appreciation and the youth group jumped all over each other in happiness and gratitude.
For us it was again a successful youth camp and we want to express our gratitude to all the youth, for their big trust and to all the helpers and teachers that contributed.
Thank you!
Eiko, Nora, Corinna, Simon
