Since 1999 Caritas Salzburg/Austria has been organising a youth camp for needy children in the MONA-region (Middle East and North of Africa) every year.

Since 1999 Caritas Salzburg/Austria has been organising ayouth camp for needy children in the MONA-region (MiddleEast and North of Africa) every year in close cooperation with local partner organisations.

The main goals of these camps are:

Contribution to the understanding among peoples helping to reduce prejudice strengthening of mutual respect and tolerance promoting interest for other religions, countries and cultures to enable socially deprived children (orphans, refugee children, handicapped,...) to benefit from real vacations

The 2004 camp took place in Alexandria and Cairo/Egypt andwas organised in close collaboration with Caritas Egypt. 95 children aged 9 – 13 from Egypt (28), Lebanon (17), Sudan (13, Sudanese refugees living in Cairo), Syria (10), Palestine (10, from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon), Jordan (9) and Libya (8) were participating.All together (including the camp staff) 130 persons from 11 different nationalities and 13 different Christian and Muslim denominations – a unique experience!

The first two weeks the camp was hosted by the convent „Tito“ of the Sisters of Charity in Alexandria

6 sisters from 4 different congregations were part of the camp staff

From left to right: Abuk (Sudan), Cayane (Syria), Hanane (Palestine), Najla (Jordan), Sylvana (Lebanon), Manar (Egypt) and Najwa (Libya)

From left to right, below: Rabih (Lebanon, Shiite), Samuel (Sudan, Latin), Dany (Syria, Chaldean), Hassan (Palestine, Sunnite); above: Ahmad (Libya, Sunni),

Hanna (Jordan, Greek orthodox) and Sarwat (Egypt, Coptic orthodoxe)

At the beginning of the camp clothes, shoes and hygenic articles had to be provided for nearly all Egyptian and Sudanese children

The children worked on topics such as solidarity, cooperation, friendship and acceptance of the others

Handicrafts were a favourite occupation for all the children

Everybody participated in competition games...

... with much enthusiasm...

As usual we disovered that we had excellent dancers among us...

The Syrian „Dabké“

The Austrian ambassador invited the children to Radi village, a holiday ressort

For many children it was the first time in their lives to eat at a restaurant

A must for every visitor to Egypt: the pyramids of Gizeh

... and of course the legendary Sphinx

An unforgetable experience: a tour on the Nile at the invitation of the German ambassador

The national evenings allowed the children to present their home country and its traditions to the other participants: the Jordanian children singing their

national anthem

The Sudanese national evening: The sound of Africa

Three weeks were long enough to tighten the bands of friendship

This camp was organised by Caritas Austria and CaritasEgypt with financial contributions from the followingorganisations of the international Caritas network:

Caritas Germany Caritas Luxemburg Caritas Italy Secours Catholique/Caritas France CRS (Catholic Relief Services = Caritas USA) Caritas Internationalis/Vatican