CAMP ELA 2019: A BET WON!
A room full of smiley children from diverse background shared with passion and excitement, the dancing
skills of African music, rhymes, and a play they learned at the Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society (AJFAS) Summer Camps with their cheering parents on the last day of the camps.
Summer Camps are supervised programs by adults organized during the summer months to enable
children to build friendships, do physical activities, adventure, and have fun.
This 4 th year CAMP ELA theme “ JE ME DECOUVRE” was coordinated by Alice Musele whom not only was
a participant of JAMITS-Youth Ambassadors for Healthy Relationships, she also volunteered last year at
CAMP ELA under the coordination of Mlle Chanceline Makuate.
AJFAS made their Summer Camp, CAMP ELA( Enfants et Leadership en Action), special by using youths
from one of their programs called “Jeunes Ambassadeurs pour des Relations Saines,” to supervise the
children at their camp and passed on some aspects of African culture to the children, as well as, gain
some transferable experiences themselves. This experience was greatly appreciated by Lynda Djoutsa,
when she shared her excitement with Diversity Magazine, “…At the end, it was a really great experience
working with the kids and also working with AJFAS because AJFAS is a great organization who help
youths like us to do better in life and build their dreams…”.
The mission of the Youth ambassadors is to Promote healthy relationships: Prevent bullying and
violence in schools and communities through educational approaches. Establish bonds of solidarity
between young people and the different communities. Promote multiculturalism, tolerance, inclusion
and diversity.
With the objectives to promote intercultural exchange, encourage teamwork, tolerance, mutual respect
and social inclusion, CAMP ELA was a 1-month program, which took place at l’ école Sainte Jeanne-d’Arc
in Edmonton. It welcomes 56 children from age 6 to 12 years old with a diverse background.
During the one-month program, children were treated with beautiful discovery and history of Alberta
Legislature, Edmonton City Hall, commonwealth pool, Museum, and much more. Lots of fun physical
activities were played and children curious and creative minds were put to work. Creativities that
parent acknowledged at the closing ceremony of the Camp ELA on August 2 nd , 2019 at Campus St. Jean.
This cultural connection impressed one of the dads of the children, Yic Camara, who chose the camp for
his Canadian-born son because he learnt aspects of African culture. Yic shared with Diversity Magazine,
“…The camp is close to my home country (Guinea)…especially for my son to join this camp because he
will meet other children from Africa. I want to thank AJFAS for organizing this great camp…”
Though there were lots of challenges, the fourth annual CAMP ELA was a success. The closing ceremony
ended with certificates of appreciation and gift card to children who perform the best during the one-
month camping.
The Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society (AJFAS) was founded on December 22, 1999, and was
officially released on February 24, 2000 at the Cité Francophone in Edmonton, Alberta. After more than
19 years of existence, AJFAS has accomplished a great deal and has expanded its activities and areas of
intervention to meet the growing needs of Francophone families of ethnocultural origin who come to
settle in Alberta. AJFAS is a francophone non-profit organization that works in the fields of education
and crime prevention with youth and Francophone families of immigrant origin in Alberta through social
development programs. AJFAS also works actively with different communities to promote Canadian
cultural diversity.
The «Rendez-vous is made for 2020! »