Make Camp Moomba national in 2017!
Ready to vote? Just click here to go directly to the Aviva Community Fund page; search "YouthCO" to find our project.
Flashback to 2012: outbursts of joy erupt as youth from BC to Nova Scotia gather for a week at Camp Moomba. On arrival, they catch up with old friends, meet new campers, chat about most-loved camp traditions, and activities they hope to try for the first time. They have been counting down the days for months. Dedicated volunteers and staff mill about, greeting campers, distributing camper t-shirts, and collecting medications.
It is only by looking at the medications you can tell these campers share more than just excitement for camp. Alongside the usual childhood medications are prescription bottles of HIV medications. Moomba is a place for campers with a personal relationship to HIV, whether they live with the virus themselves or a close family member does. Not every camp is set up to be able to provide support for youth living with HIV: that's why we're here.
Camp Moomba became part of our work at YouthCO in 2015, and this past summer, YouthCO ran camp for the first time! We got the chance to integrate our commitment to peer education, peer support, and indigenizing into the longstanding Moomba family and traditions!
In order to fund Camp Moomba for summer 2017, we’ve teamed up with the Teresa Group and are entering the Aviva Community Fund challenge to win the $100,000 we need to make camp possible. $100,000 will mean that up to 70 youth directly impacted by HIV from across Canada will get to participate in Camp Moomba 2017, including a leadership cohort for campers who are 15 and up. This leadership cohort will include the option for campers to attend one week of Camp Moomba and one week of leadership programming at the Teresa Group camp in Ontario. We’ll also be able to bring Camp Moomba alumni from across Canada to camp as part of our staff and volunteer team!
In order to win $100,000, we’re asking our supporters to help us between now and October 28! In the Aviva Community Fund challenge, the 15 projects with the most votes will move on to the final round. In the final round, judges will review all the ideas and choose the best one to fund.
To vote for our project, all you need to do is visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/voting/project/view/16-551. Every person is eligible to vote 18 times between now and October 28, which you can do all at once using your Facebook account, with your email address, or both! You can choose to cast all your votes at once if you’d like- it just takes a few clicks!
We would also love your help in spreading the word – whether you want to share our project on your social media, or would like us to get you printed materials to promote our project where you learn, work, or play – every bit helps! Please get in touch at [email protected] if you’d like us to send you some materials.
We are really excited about the opportunity to bring together campers living with, and affected by HIV from across Canada, and look forward to connecting with voters from across Canada to make this a reality!