By Ayse Oztoprak…….
The Journey to Camp Cyprus 2016
I organized my first summer camp in Büyükada, İstanbul in 2007 under the name Camp Büyükada. Having had a chance to study in a British School in Saudi Arabia until the age of 13, I had a culture shock when it came to comparing the Turkish and English education system when my family decided to move back to Turkey. It took me long and painful amount of time just to get adjusted and after my university degree as an engineer I had my mind set on becoming a teacher. For this aim I had to go back to Lycee and complete my second university to become a teacher (this even says a lot about the education system in Turkey). I come from a lucky family and they used to send me to summer camps in Switzerland. I remember having the best time of my life and used to cry after a month long stay just to stay a little bit more. I always wanted my daughter to have a camp experience like I did. She was 3 when I had my first summer camp and ever since then all my camps were for her age group. This year she is 12 and Camp Cyprus is for children between 10 and 14.
I think organizing the first yoga festival of North Cyprus gave me a lot of an experience on how to plan for such a big event. As a result I’ve put together my 17 years of teaching, 8 years of summer camping experience together with organising skills and came up with Camp Cyprus. This time we are using The British University of Nicosia’s (BUN) Kyrenia campus as a camp site. It offers us a wonderful cafe where we start the day off with breakfast at 8:30. Language lessons are given by C-Quals Language School, our language partner. We have drama lessons twice a week and activities differing to the periods the campers are enrolled. Dancing, Sports, Cooking and Pottery are the activities that children will have a chance to choose among. We will have lunch before we leave for the beach twice a week and pool once week. Slides are a favourite among kids so we will be going to Acapulco or the newly opened Elexus. Every Wednesday we will be cooperating with the municipality on a community service and Fridays we will be off to Mersinlik to get involved in permaculture. Permaculture is basically designing sustainable human communities set in balanced ecologies, meaning we will produce rather than consume. As an example the children will have chance to build a system to produce water and use the source on farming. We have a team of inspiring young experts who will be combining games, unique outdoor activities and excursions with team challenges. Camp Cyprus is all about building amazing memories of childhood and gaining friendships for a lifetime.
Camp Cyprus consists of 4, two week long day summer camp periods for children aged between 10 and 14.
1st Period: 11 July – 22 July’16
2nd Period: 25 July – 05 August’16
3rd Period: 08 August – 19 August’16
4th Period: 22 August – 02 September’16
To see more details and the programmes click here
We also will be offering accommodation and camp activities for campers who would like to stay for the night and weekend activities for families wanting to send their children only for the weekend. Of course both can be combined.
You can visit the Camp Cyprus Facebook page by clicking here
For more information or to book please make contact on the following telephone numbers
0533 882 3672 : 0392 815 4010 : 0392 227 5783
