Day 6 - Our society: the future is in our hands

Our focus today was our society. The first activity introduced students to international organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF,  INTERPOL etc.  Students matched the names of international organizations with their logos and missions. Then, they watched six short videos, one about each organization, and completed worksheets to reinforce the facts about each organization. A discussion followed in which the students expressed their opinions about which organization they would most like to volunteer for and why.  

The students learned about the power they have gained by attending camp. Through their education, multi-lingualism, growing cultural literacy, expanding knowledge of history, human rights, responsibilities and values, they are very powerful, and by exercising and expressing these, they are a danger to non-democratic leaders and governments who would want to suppress their rights and an asset to their democracy. The camp has empowered the students to be upstanders (or intentional bystanders, in some dangerous situations) to help victims, and to stop perpetrators' intent on violating human rights. The students were encouraged to learn about the Eight Stages of Genocide that start with restrictions of human rights and efforts to create an “us and the other” mentality so they will exclude certain people from their Circle of Obligation. The students also were encouraged to question the status quo and work to understand systems and how they, as students, can affect positive change in their communities.

Continuing their learning about the power of teamwork, the students worked together to construct towers from magazine pages, cello tape, a piece of string, glue and scissors. They strategized about how to engineer the structure, came to compromises regarding the ideas they generated, assigned tasks to each person, and worked together to build the tallest structure they could. The group that built the tallest and most stable structure received chocolate-filled gold medals.

After another buffet lunch, we welcomed Ted Janis, Political/Human Rights Officer, from the US Embassy who spoke with us about The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and its history and significance throughout the world.  His presentation, including the Q&A session, reinforced the learning students have gained throughout our week at camp and emphasized that teens have important power that can shape the future of their countries and the world. 

Mr. Janis then presented, on behalf of Ambassador Hall, certificates to each of the camp attendees and posed for official photographs taken by the Embassy’s photographer.      

We moved outdoors for the large group photograph, with each of us waving a flag printed with both the American and Lithuanian flags, gifts from the US Embassy.

For an hour before dinner, we headed to the lake for swimming, jumping from the dock, and boating.

Today, we were excited to celebrate a 15^th birthday Lithuanian style with two šakotis (tree branch) cakes and the birthday girl, Natalia from Poland, hoisted into the air on a chair 15 times. We sang boisterous happy birthday songs to her  in three languages.   

After dinner, in school groups, the students created “Give Me Five” posters to illustrate the changes they want to make in the world. 

Traditionally, the last night of summer camps in Lithuania is an “all-nighter,” with everyone participating in planned activities and trying to stay awake until sunrise. Tomorrow, we’ll let you know how we did with that!