Your ultimate summer camp

What help did you extend right after the recent earthquake? What did you prepare when a forecast of a super typhoon coming was all over the news?

Did you notice that when calamities strike, you only have yourself to rely on? Immediate help is not always at hand. Ponder on what you could have done had you been trained well to react promptly in the event of disasters.

This is the reason behind the camping event called “One Big Camp” – to make summer not just fun but productive too. It is designed to be the closest camping activity a child can experience, like those that adult mountaineers and professional scouting groups usually hold. It is especially relevant in the light of major disasters that have recently befallen the country, especially the Visayas region.

According to Ms. Jacqueline “Jaq” S. Siwalas of The Event Hub, professional mountaineers, visual artists, registered nurses, sporting-event organizers, and educators have all pitched in their knowledge, skills and talents to come up with highly educational, practical, and fun camping modules. Jaq, who designed the event, said that it is also in response to the fact that the “present trend of child play and exposure only revolves around gadget-induced games and indoor activities.” She felt sorry that “most kids nowadays do not even know how it feels to wake up with the sunrise on the mountain and how to handle daily practical tasks in order to survive.”

More than that, more than the concern that “Today’s children are not so familiar anymore with traditional Filipino games like ‘bato-lata’ or ‘tubig-tubig’,” the outdoor fun camp aims to impart disaster preparedness in kids as its main goal.

Mr. Paul Anthony Sevilla, camp head master, with head medic Ms. Stacey Ababa, explained that they’ve chosen to focus on children for this particular event as they “deem that children [are often] the primary and, by large, the major victims of any type of disasters.”

The training is to be conducted in a simplified manner, none of the highly technical terms and methods. “It is meant to be child friendly. It should also be easier to understand and administer for quick response,” Paul added. The training modules include Basic Mountaineering for kids and teenagers, Introduction to Disaster Preparedness, First Aid 101, Basic Rescue Training, Survival Cooking, Map Reading and Communications, Nature Art Workshop, “Larong Pinoy” (traditional games), and an adventure race.

Campers aged 9-16 years old are to spend two nights in the camp. No gadgets are allowed for the duration of the event. Parental visits may be arranged. Those below 9 years old will only have a full day of camping activities on May 17, wherein parents are, at this time, allowed in the vicinity.

As a community outreach component of the event, the organizers together with sponsors and the Cebu City government will afterwards conduct a “compressed camping module” for one day in select public schools of Cebu City.

“One Big Camp” happens from May 9-11 at Governor Leyson’s Peak, Barangay Taptap, Cebu City. Registration starts today, April 6 at the Ayala Center Cebu. Interested parties may inquire at the mall’s Concierge.