One hundred and twenty youth from across Northern Cape will be gathered at Duin in die Weg Guest Farm in the ZF Mgcawu District for the tenth edition of the annual National Youth Camp. The seven day event will begin on Saturday, 03 December, until Friday, 09 December 2022. It has been put together by the Provincial and National Departments of Sport, Arts and Culture together with other strategic partners. The 2022 event will be hosted under the theme: “One Heart One Africa;” It has been scheduled to be officially opened by the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms. Desery Fienies together with the MEC for Youth, Women, Disability, Communications and e-Government Ms. Lorato Venus Blennies and other dignitaries.
The National Youth Camp (NYC) is a forum for young people of our country to engage with each other across all barriers of the past such as race, ethnicity, and gender while learning valuable life skills. The programme started in 2012 with 300 participants per province. The number of participants was however reduced to 200 in 2019. The National Youth Camps are run simultaneously in the different provinces over a seven day period. Camps are run by Provincial Departments of Sport, Arts and Culture and NGO partners. During 2014, youth who were born in 1994 were invited to the camp to celebrate born-frees. In 2022, only Grade 10 learners who went through a stringent selection criteria are eligible to participate.
The Youth Camp motto – Learn, Lead and Serve – captures the essence of its focus, which is to nurture the spirit of social cohesion and nation building, and provide young South Africans with leadership and life skills and values that will help them develop into proud and patriotic leader citizens.
A number of alumni from the previous year’s camps will be attending once again, but this time they’ll be attending to encourage young people to grow the Trailblazer Movement in their communities post the Youth Camp.
A day during the seven-day-long camp is set aside for community service, where Trailblazers will be visiting a school in the vicinity of the camp venue to do community work.
In terms of security at the camp, Trailblazers are constantly under the watchful eye of camp management, and each camp has 24-hour security to provide maximum safety. Strict discipline is also maintained at all times.
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Issued by: Communications Unit.
Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
Cell: 078 944 0200.