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Sports Camp Unites Youth in North Caucasus

Youth from across the North Caucasus participate
in a teambuilding exercise during the YIPP Sports
Camp. The activity required participants to work
together to form a star with the rope in 10 minutes.

By Tatsiana Hulko and Shannon Burke Bruder

“I now understood that the issue of tolerance is not about trying to be alike, but about learning from each other’s differences.” So stated Sasha, a 15-year-old from Stavropolski Krai, following his participation in an interethnic summer camp in the North Caucasus. Over 100 young men and women of 25 ethnic groups from six republics gathered in the town of Pyatigorsk, in Stavropolski Krai, Russian Federation, from June 21 to 27 for a week of sports competitions and interactive workshops designed to build tolerance and foster cross-cultural communication. The camp was the first in a series of summer camps organized by IREX as part of the USAID-funded Youth Initiative for Promoting Peace in the North Caucasus (YIPP).

IREX recruited participants from multiethnic villages that had not been targeted by previous international development projects in the six regions whose authorities supported the camp—Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Adygeia, and Stavropolski Krai. Participants were nominated by local youth councils and recommended by community leaders on the basis of their leadership potential and good sportsmanship. Recruitment efforts focused on encouraging young women to participate in the sports camp as a healthy outlet for self-expression in conservative Muslim communities, where families aren’t always supportive of young women engaging in recreational activities. Although some traditional households did not allow their daughters to participate in the camp, IREX regional coordinators worked with parents and village elders to ensure community support and 31% of the participants were female.

For many delegates, the camp provided a rare opportunity to leave their communities and experience a multiethnic and multilingual environment. The camp program enhanced cross-cultural understanding by creating a common forum for young people to interact, strengthening tolerance among different ethnic groups, and engaging delegates from different regions in teambuilding activities. The schedule included educational workshops, where the participants learned about community leadership, volunteering, project design/proposal writing, communication and public speaking skills, sports tournaments that engaged participants in healthy competition and helped develop team spirit, and recreational activities such as talent shows and cultural performances that allowed delegates to express their artistic potential and share their traditions with the rest of the group. IREX worked closely with Natalia Yanina, director of the Leadership Center of Kabardino-Balkaria, to design the camp curriculum. She formed a team of educational trainers and served as chief trainer during the camp.

Participants enjoyed the opportunity to interact with youth from other republics and ethnic groups. “I am grateful for the opportunity to meet so many people of different ethnicities” said Ramazan, a 15-year-old delegate from Karachaevo-Cherkessia who wants to be a lawyer. “We all have our stereotypes, but if I want to defend people I have to treat them equally,” he explained. “I am happy my stereotypes about the Chechens were broken, and I want to return to my village to tell everyone how wonderful the camp was.”

One of the oldest delegates from Chechnya, 17-year-old Magomed, became a supervisor of his republic’s delegation during the camp. He developed strong leadership and organizational skills and gained the respect and trust of the IREX staff. One of the highlights of the camp was when Mogamed approached one of the organizers and asked what he needed to do in order to volunteer as a coordinator in the future youth camps.

The closing ceremony of the camp left no doubt that the major goal—to bring young people from different geographic and ethnic backgrounds together and unite them around common interests, enhance their intercultural understanding, help them build networks, and strengthen their leadership skills—was fully realized.

August 2008

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