During the first weekend of September, children in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood attended the last in a series of half-day children’s camps where they learned how to apply the teachings of the Baha’i Faith in developing environmentally sustainable behaviour.
Each of the camps in the series consisted of a program of lessons, games, music, crafts, stories and drama that reinforced the children’s exploration of the principles conveyed in a particular passage from the writings of Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith.
The organizers for the last weekend-long camp selected an excerpt from the tablets of Baha’u’llah titled Summons of the Lord of Hosts: “Take from this world only to the measure of your needs, and forgo that which exceedeth them. Observe equity in all your judgments, and transgress not the bounds of justice, nor be of them that stray from its path.”
“Rather than discussing the principles of moderation, equality and justice enunciated in the quote in an abstract or hypothetical way, we saw an opportunity to help the students apply them in a very concrete way through the way they live their lives” explained Samuel Benoit, the coordinator of the camp. Children aged 5 to 11 reflected on the differences between their needs and wants and on the implications of taking more than one’s share of things such as food and toys.
The values of the camp were reinforced by refreshments that included locally grown apples and grapes, homemade cupcakes, fair trade chocolate and municipally treated tap water rather than bottled water or juice.
Parents returning to collect their children at the end of the camp were invited to watch a presentation of the songs, drama and crafts done by the children, including a fashion show of elaborate costumes the children made from newspapers as a demonstration of how materials normally considered to be waste can be reused in fun and creative ways.