Summer Mountain Camp 2025

R&R Summer Camp 2025 - What a crowd! More than 350 kids at once.

Youth leaders crowd into the back of a minibus on the way to the summer camp

It all started with much excitement: on the road again!

Two youth leaders unfold a large striped tent canvas in the forest

How to put up that enormous tent?

Three youth leaders carry bags and bedding across the campsite

Everybody brought their package.

Scout leaders and volunteers walk along a dirt path through the hills of Wadi Oudine

Scout leaders and volunteers explore the terrain of Wadi Oudine.

Youth leaders climb a slope through dense bushes during a cross-country hike

Cross-country hikes are not everybody’s cup of tea…

A white tarpaulin shelter stretched over a carpet between pine trees at the campsite

Youth leaders sit around a campfire at night

Six youth leaders stand in a dry meadow holding long branches gathered in the forest

Youth leaders clap and sing in a circle among pine trees

A woman in a headscarf leads a song with hand movements among youth leaders in the forest

Two women prepare chicken and green peppers for a camp meal

A youth leader fries potatoes in a pot on a gas stove at the campsite

A youth leader leans against a pine tree holding a board with hand-drawn posters

Youth leaders hold up purple, orange and white balloons in the forest

Four youth leaders walk along a forest path carrying water bottles

Two young women hug at the campsite, with tents among the trees behind them

Children and youth leaders gather by a pine tree with a hand-made R&R scout flag

Youth leaders raise their arms and dance to music under the R&R banner in the forest

Youth leaders show their yellow-painted palms during a craft activity with pine cones

Children and youth leaders crowd together under the trees during the camp day

Children face the R&R banner in a forest clearing decorated with colourful balloons

Youth leaders sing into microphones under the R&R banner during the camp day

Youth leaders with microphones present the programme to children seated in a forest clearing

A boy with a light blue scarf sits on the forest floor next to a large water bottle

Youth leaders walk along a dirt track into the mountains, one with outstretched arms

Children and youth leaders walk through the forest waving, one carrying a paper flag

A youth leader explains a game to children next to a spiral of stones laid out on the ground

A smiling youth leader in a headscarf carries a speaker as the group hikes through dry grass

Children and youth leaders gather under a large oak tree on a rocky slope during the hike

A young woman in a white blouse lies on the forest floor, playing the sleeping princess

A man in an R&R cap holds a wreath decorated with a pine cone and tinsel among the youth

Children and youth leaders crowd around a tree as a woman in a hat speaks into a microphone

A young woman in a straw hat and headscarf speaks into a microphone among children and youth leaders

Children surround the masked figure of Thanatos, wearing a grey cloak and holding a staff, in the forest

A girl wearing a flower crown speaks into a microphone among a crowd of children

Youth leaders walk hand in hand under the R&R banner, one wearing a flower crown

A boy rides on the shoulders of another boy among cheering youth leaders under pine trees

Youth leaders sit on a white sheet in the shade of the trees during a discussion

A man gestures as he talks to a man in a yellow shirt on a sheet in the forest

Youth leaders and adults share a meal at a long table at the campsite, with tents behind

Two girls swim in their clothes in a stone-walled pool of water

Group photo of youth leaders and volunteers sitting and standing among pine trees, waving

A young man in a cap holds up a film camera at the forest campsite

The highlight of the year, for all the kids we serve, is without any doubt the Summer Mountain Camp. This year’s edition, for the 9th consecutive year, was under the signs of change. About a third of the youth we have served over the last twelve years have returned to Syria. But others have arrived. We welcomed Alawite families from the opposite side of the border in March, when the massacres in the coastal area of Syria were targeting them. At the summer camp, all these differences and all the worries of the world didn’t matter. Let kids be kids - despite everything!

Our youth leaders prepared an amazing programme for all the younger kids who joined. Youth leaders slept over for eight days in the mountains of Akkar. The younger kids came on one special camp day where they were singing together, hunting the treasurer hidden by a sleeping princess, overcoming the evil “Thanatos” - inacted like every year by our director Friedrich - who had enchanted her… and simply had a wonderful day in the mountains: Christians and Muslims united, Lebanese as well as Syrians, Palestinians and others. Come and join us next year!

Special thanks to the Catholic Diocese of Münster in Germany and to the association Globale Brücke e.V. that sponsored this year’s summer camp, amongst many other activities of our nascent interreligious youth movement.

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