Just be a child

100 children and young people from disadvantaged families were able to spend their summer holidays at the Pestalozzi Children's Village and gain important experience through carefree play.

Our Children's Village should be remembered by the children and young people as a place where they can be who they want to be. Nobody has to, everyone can. The participants are at the centre of all activities. The educators and youth workers try to reflect on individual lifeworlds and relate them to society. Orientation towards the everyday experiences, needs and interests of the young participants plays a central role here.
This is because, in the course of childhood development, adolescents no longer only orientate themselves within their family environment, but also increasingly towards the outside world - especially their peers. The peer group is the ideal training ground for social behaviour. For the first time this summer, two holiday camps were held in the holiday village, which were also aimed at children of parents with a low income. And who would otherwise not be able to give their children a holiday. The camp was co-initiated by the Elternsein Foundation, the publisher of the Swiss parents' magazine Fritz+Fränzi, which is also very keen to give all children a wonderful holiday experience.

Be inspired and inspired

Diversity is the programme at the children's village. The kids were able to attend a wide variety of activities at the holiday camps and choose from up to four programme items every day. One of them discovered her talent for archery, while the others honed their soldering skills building robots or making fires in the forest. In the words of one participant: «I can do so many different things here, at home I would never have the opportunity and would just hang around doing the same thing all the time.» The diverse programme aims to ensure that children and young people from all different backgrounds learn to be enthusiastic about new things. Around 100 participants were able to recognise and develop their own potential. Hopefully they will continue to do so after the holidays - inspired by new ideas, new opportunities and new friendships.
and new friendships.

Informal education is needed, especially in times of coronavirus

Since its beginnings, the Children's Village has supported children and young people from very different situations in their personal development. Along the way, non-formal and informal educational work has guided and shaped our pedagogical activities. Particularly in the current situation, in which the coronavirus is permeating all of our thinking and is influencing our social relationships as uncertainty, children and young people need a trusting environment in which they can make their own experiences and grow from them. During the lockdown, the non-formal and informal side of education was virtually forgotten and became a minor matter at best. Providers from this area of education had to work hard to attract attention so as not to be forgotten in the general panic. There were good concepts, but they were barely recognised alongside formal school education. It would be desirable for them to co-exist on an equal footing, which would benefit children and young people in particular.

The child's psyche suffers from a lack of physical contact

For the COPSY study from Germany, researchers from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf surveyed more than 1,000 children and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 and more than 1,500 parents on 26 May and 10 June. «The study has shown that the challenges of the pandemic and the associated changes in social life reduce the quality of life and mental well-being of children and adolescents and increase the risk of mental health problems,» write the authors. Most children and adolescents felt stressed, worried more, paid less attention to their health and complained more often about arguments in the family.
For every second child, the relationship with their friends suffered due to the lack of physical contact. The Covid-19 pandemic was and is a very special kind of challenge and it highlights weaknesses in the system. These can only be overcome together, with all the educational stakeholders that Switzerland has to offer, which fortunately are many. We at the Children's Village are very pleased that we were able to create an offer during the holiday period that gave children and young people the space to physically come into contact with each other. We have been doing this in Switzerland for almost 75 years now. And we want to continue doing this with great passion. For your child, for all children in Switzerland and preferably for all children in the world.

Overview: Holiday camp Kunterbunt and Action & Fun

The holiday camps Kunterbunt, for 8 to 11-year-olds, and Action & Fun, for 12 to 15-year-olds, make a contribution to public health and against the isolation of children and young people.

  • Den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern steht ein vielfältiges Programm zur Auswahl, welches den Rahmen schafft, sich für Neues zu begeistern und in direkten Austausch mit Gleichaltrigen zu treten.
  • Rund 100 Kinder und Jugendliche haben in den Ferien im Kinderdorf – inspiriert von neuen Ideen, neuen Möglichkeiten und neuen Freundschaften – ihre individuellen Potenziale erkannt und gefördert.
  • Das Angebot will Eltern entlasten und ihnen die Möglichkeiten geben, Zeit ohne Kinder zu verbringen, um aufzutanken und zu regenerieren. Und es bietet Eltern eine echte Alternative zur ausserschulischen Betreuung während der Sommerferien.
Dance and movement: Together with the Panorama Dance Theatre, the children and young people at the Action & Fun holiday camp created their own dance choreography.

About the author:

Lukrecija Kocmanic ist Leiterin Freizeit im Kinderdorf Pestalozzi.
Lukrecija Kocmanic is Head of Recreation at the Pestalozzi Children's Village.

About the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation

The Pestalozzi Children's Foundation is an internationally active children's aid organisation. Children and young people have been at the centre of its activities since 1946. The Children's Village in Trogen is a place of peace-building, where children from Switzerland and abroad learn to deal with cultural and social differences through exchange. The foundation provides disadvantaged children in twelve countries with access to quality education.
www.pestalozzi.ch

More about the Pestalozzi Children's Village:

  • «Experience lots of new things instead of hanging out on the couch»
    For the first time, the Pestalozzi Children's Foundation and the Elternsein Foundation, publisher of the Swiss parents' magazine Fritz+Fränzi, organised summer camps for children from disadvantaged families. For a long time, it was unclear whether they would be able to take place at all due to corona. So the joy was all the greater when the first children arrived at the site in Trogen AR.