Camp Hooka-Sakka

Camp Hooka-Sakka was indeed a successful and fun experience for me and my fellow friends. I held the role of being the group facilitator for Ooga. I felt that this experience was very different from the times when I was the participants during the HFC camps.

We spent the weeks doing a lot of preparatory work toward the lead-up to the camp. We were tasked to lead the following groups and help to ensure that the games were running smoothly as planned. I felt that it is a privilege to be given this unique opportunity to lead the younger clients. This experience, in turn, showed me a gateway to give back to society and AWWA as a whole. I feel thankful to AWWA for all the services they had provided me for the last few years, and this was a great chance for me to repay them. I hoped that I have done well during the course of the camp.

We were charged to plan activities for the campfire and some games during the second day. In all honesty, the preparation among the June committee wasn’t very well done. The preparations done by us were last minute and very messy. We were called to task and did a better job after which. It was a wake-up call for u, telling us to take the camp preparations seriously and do our very best to ensure that the activities would be fun and beneficial for the clients involved.

With these objectives in mind, we dug in and planned a proper face-to-face meeting to discuss the details of the camp preparations. Hopefully, the experience of helping out to plan such a big camp will put me in a good stead for the future. The experiences have taught me many skills such as teamwork, communication and people relations among others.

Being part of the committee was a privilege. We have worked together to lighten the atmosphere very much. I felt that the clients did themselves very proud with their enthusiasm to participate in all the activities. I think that they felt a belonging towards the groups they were assigned to. Thus, they were all quite active and try their best to ensure that their group would win any games they played in.

Being the facilitator for Ooga was an exciting challenge for me. As I browsed through the name list, I realized that many of the clients and some volunteers were new. I took the opportunity to meet new people to expand my social circle. A week before, we were instructed that we were tasked to assist each other in ensuring that the games run smoothly as planned. Guiding the clients during activities was a great learning experience too. Though Ooga finished last in the camp’s first game, I wass very encouraged to see that the clients didn’t feel discouraged. I did tell the clients that there was still some way to go before the end, and there were ample chances for us to claw back the deficit. In fact, the clients were very motivated to do their best and enjoy playing the activities. Indeed, Ooga was to come storming back to finish second in the final group standings.

I was happy to see that the clients were always very cooperative and helpful towards one another. A good example of that would be the relationship between Lynn and Joyce. During the camp preparations, the clients were all very active in contributing ideas to the skit. I was my pleasure to be part of the group to perform the most interesting skit! I felt that they showed fantastic team spirit and togetherness throughout the camp, which does make me very proud of their achievements. Personally, I have indeed learnt a lot of important lessons too. I also exercised my level of self independence, while learning to be aware of changes around the surroundings. It teaches me the responsibility of looking out for others while taking care of myself at the same time. I also challenged myself to walk along the rocky grounds on my own, standing back up despite falling. By being a leading voice and role model, I hope to instill my experience with them so that they can grow to be success in life. For example, I hope to impart in them self independence, having learnt the skill when I was their age. I do see a cheerful spirit and fearlessness sin them, traits which I could learn too. This camp has also provided a platform for the children to build bonds with their siblings. However, at times the clients have to learn not to be too reliant on the volunteers because they are there as a helping hand for the clients. Overall, they were a credit to themselves.

For the junior committee members, I felt that we did quite fine overall. Despite this, I think that the campfire wasn’t very well done by our standards. Based on our past experiences, I fel that we could put up a better performance for the clients and volunteers to enjoy. Nonetheless, I hope to take these learning experiences on hand so that I could grow and improve further as a person. I wish to thank Yu Kun for the wonderful guidance he has given to all the junior committee members. He made sure that we were on task and wanted the best efforts from us. During the night’s debriefing session, he shared his opinions with us and also guided us along by pointing out some aspects of our performances which we could improve. I took his comments on board and improved for the second day.

Learning Points – What have I learnt?

Throughout the camp experience, I learnt to take responsibility and initiative to lead the younger clients. In a way, this facilitation role has helped me in building my self confidence and leadership skills, which took me out of my control zone. I also learnt to adapt to differing situations and thus react to solve them as quickly as possible. I spoke up more often, always trying to inject various ideas for the skits and totem pole design. It was a different method to learn because I was perhaps used to wait for answers to be given. I feel that these experiences will help me when I step into the workforce or pursue further studies in the future. If given another opportunity, I would relish them to lead the clients in future camps.

Feedback

I think that overall, the camp was very well planned as I see that the clients were enjoying themselves very much. The activeness and loudness of the various cheers were mostly made by the volunteers, as such we may not know if the clients really did participate in the cheers. During meal times, I also realized that the amount of food for some of the clients, were too much, more than what they could eat. Thus, food was wasted. Other than that, the atmosphere during mealtimes was quite good. The campfire preparations were good too, as I think we obtained the objective of surprising the clients with the appearance of Anmi Dodo. However, the junior committee members did not get the opportunity to take part in the night walk, as I was looking forward to it. The mural painting activities were also beneficial to the clients as they get to show appreciation to the staff who have helped them throughout their lives so far.