Summer Camps In Russia

Here’s the flip side to the camp-to-adopt story I told you about this morning: summer camps for Russian children–sometimes orphans–held in Russia and staffed, at least in part, by American volunteers.

Adoption Ark, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., just wrapped up its fifth annual summer camp in Russia. It took 120 children, ages 6 to 16, from nine orphanages in the Ivanovo region to a three-week camp in the nearby town of Kleshevka. No, they didn’t get to experience life on the other side of the planet as they might have if the program had been in the United States (Adoption Ark has run camp-to-adopt programs here in the past). But from the looks on the faces of the children appearing on the Web site recap of the camp, they seemed very happy campers indeed.

I’ve come across camp programs at charities like iOrphan, which supports the Hope Family Commune and its associated summer camps in the St. Petersburg area and the Republic of Karelia. iOrphan’s founder, Kirill Bogouslavski, says that one of his earliest experiences working with orphans was through a Russian summer program in the Caucasus mountains. There’s also Strategic Angel Care, which has a 14-day trip to work at an orphan camp among its outreach options this summer.

CCUSA brings international students to the United States to work at American summer camps, but it also makes it possible for young Americans to be camp counselors in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, Europe, Brazil, and Russia. Camp Counselors Russia, founded in 1996, is one of the California-based organization’s older programs. It recruits volunteers ages 18-35, with skills in art, sports, education and teaching English. It costs the volunteers about $2,000 to participate, but they have the opportunity to earn academic credit for their efforts at the University of Georgia.

This is just one of the many volunteer vacation options, in Russia and around the world. Transitions Abroad maintains a list of organizations active in Russia that you can access here.

If you know of anybody doing a volunteer vacation in Russia this summer, I hope you’ll let me know.

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