DAY 1: SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES

On the morning of July 20th, HILL and Nhà Diều (Kite House) welcomed students from nearly 20 schools in Hà Nội to the KITE LAND summer camp. After eagerly exploring the space at Nhà Diều, the children attended the opening ceremony of the summer camp. During this ceremony, the children got to know each other, were divided into groups, decided their group names, and listened to the teachers establish common rules. Four teams of Giraffes, Green Earth, Trees and Earthquakes were then ready for a 5-day journey promising memorable experiences.  

On the afternoon of day 1, the students explored the 17 goals for sustainable development together. Academic notions were explained and represented in a fun and interesting way by the children. When making detergent from western soapberry, students were surprised to discover that from very simple ingredients in nature, we can create a detergent as fragrant and clean as soap. The water resource game was the perfect end to our first day in the sweltering July summer heat.

DAY 2: SUSTAINABLE ECOSYSTEM

After the first day of warming up and getting acquainted, campers began to tune in and participated in several play-based learning activities with Kite Land with excitement! With the topic "Sustainable Ecosystem", the children explored and designed models of a habitat box from recycled materials, before presenting the four different environments on Earth with great confidence. Creating objects from recycled items was no less exciting. Students became interior design architects through constructing from plastic bottles and talented fashion designers from creating newspaper outfits and sewing and patching accessories from fabric waste,…

“I will not litter”, “I will protect the environment”, “I will save water” were some of the promises written on their daily diary at the end of the day. Let's follow along to see how the children will continue to transform into "environmental heroes" in the next days of the Kite Land summer camp! 

DAY 3: SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY

What is a sustainable community? It is when the members of the community have a deep understanding and are proud of their national culture. During the excursion to Chòng Pagoda - the security zone of the old Northern Vietnam (Bắc Kỳ - Tonkin) Committee, the children learned how to arrange a ceremony tray, offered incense and listened to the history of the Chòng pagoda. Then, on pieces of red paper, each child wrote their special wish: “I want to be an entrepreneur”, “I want to have a box of multipurpose pencilcase next year”, “I want to get all good marks next year. ”, “I want to have my own computer to play games” which were then hung on the trees there as ornaments.

A sustainable community is also a green community where every citizen has access to good services. In the role of ministers, the children participated in the meeting of the Kite Kingdom, expressing their observations and perspectives with profound reflection. One friend spoke as an environment minister: “I will build a city with lots of parks”. The other asked: "If people litter in the park, how will you handle it?" - “I’ll fine them". That friend continued to ask: "What if rich people still litter and just pay?" "- Then imprisonment ...". Just like that, one idea followed the other on building the sustainable community and the dream city. At the end of the afternoon, the groups went to the farmers’ homes in the village to cook and enjoy a cozy meal with their families.

DAY 4: ACTION FOR CLIMATE

“EARTH IS MORE VALUABLE THAN MONEY, NO MORE CLIMATE CHANGE, SAVE OUR WORLD”. Very powerful slogans were illustrated by the children with posters depicting the solutions: protecting the environment is protecting yourself; trees are the lungs of the earth; do not burn forests; save electricity, reuse; grow many trees; store food; prepare medical equipment; reserve clean water … They were becoming aware of the problems our world is facing. The most exciting activity of the day was making a raft for floods and "surpassing the flood" with their teammates. The children learned about the mechanism of buoyancy and safety, and played in the water to release energy at the end of a hot summer day. 

DAY 5: SUSTAINABLE LIVING

On the last day of the summer camp, the children together prepared a product display called "Sustainable Living". This is the result of the work of 04 groups throughout our 5 days 4 nights journey. The program was led by 2 young MCs who were extremely witty and charming. The children designed and directed all the performances with their creativity under the guidance of the teachers. The singing performance "This Earth is ours" came from the Green Earth team. The play "Green Forest Day" with the message to protect forests were performed by the Giraffe team. The exciting "Green Summer" dance was from the girls and boys from Green Trees. Finally, the farewell song “Freeze” was sang by the Earthquake team. In addition to the Ecokids badge and certificate of participation, our summer camp also had many meaningful gifts for the best team, outstanding individual and best captain. 

The 5 days of summer camp passed beautifully like a dream witnessing the change and progress of each child. At the parting moment, the children couldn't hold back their tears when saying goodbye to one another and the teachers. A goodbye hug, a couple of lines showing appreciation written on each other’s shirt, a quick thank you were the most memorable and dearest things.