It was an incredible week which I will NEVER forget and will remain in my memories throughout my life! The first to arrive on Sunday 18th July were the Italians and Belgians. Then the Maltese participants, following them the Lithuanians, the Romanians, the Slovaks, the Danish and last but not least the Spanish participants who arrived on Tuesday. Everybody was excited for the EuroCamp to start as we were going to make new friends, get to know better some people which we already knew, learn about the different organizations and also increase our knowledge about the different cultures of the different countries. During this camp we were about 70 participants – 30 of these were Maltese while the others were from the countries mentioned above.

Some of the topics which we tackled during this week were about how to include persons with disabilities, homeless people, poor people and others who are discriminated into our society i.e. social inclusion and also about human rights. We had many workshops during the week to make us aware how these people feel and how we can include them in the society. The activity I liked most was on Wednesday when we went to Għajn Tuffieħa for a swim and afterwards, we were divided into groups of ten and we could only take with us one mobile phone, no money and one bag between ten people with some essentials in it like a torch, insect repellant, towels etc. Each group was left at a place with a map and some rice and baked beans to eat. We had to walk to our final destination which was on a beach. My group had to sleep at Buġiba Bay. We had two stops where to stop until we arrived at our destination where we played a game. We were only given water bottles and newspapers on which we could sleep. Luckily I had my towel so I could cover myself up during the cold, long night near the sea. It was a nice experience by which we got to know how the homeless people feel and we learnt what we can do to help them. On Saturday 24th July we also had a treasure hunt at the Capital City of Malta-Valletta about human rights. There were many workshops all around Valletta which each dealt with a particular human right. This treasure hunt made each participant more aware about human rights and how important it is for each country to follow these rights. The week passed by really quickly and the day of the departure (Monday 26th July) arrived. Many cried as a week was long enough to make friends and get to know the foreign participants. Some of the Maltese participants went to the airport to see the others leave and to say the last goodbye and giving them the last hug before returning back to their country not knowing if we will ever meet again. We are all hoping to see each other again next year at the World Youth Day in Madrid-Spain.

I will never forget this amazing week and a big thanks goes to all the leaders who prepared this Euro Camp, to ŻAK Malta for hosting and also to FIMCAP as without its help, none of this would have taken place!!!

Lara Galea

ŻAK Żurrieq