Hey there, Changemakers!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but here’s my final Recrear update I’ve been meaning to put up for a while. If you haven’t seen any of my earlier posts, no worries! Here’s a little background story to get you started:

My summer of 2012 started off a little vaguely. I knew that Recrear was an international development organization working specifically with youth and that I’d be joining returning and new members, like myself, for the RecrearMagnify 2012 conference in Ecuador later in June. Apart from that however, I was pretty much clueless. After countless hours reading through the Recrear blog I decided that joining Recrear was definitely what I wanted to do. Not only would I get the type of grassroots international development and social innovation experience I’d been looking for but I would get to do it all while working with an diverse International Staff and exploring a new country, Ecuador.

*Just to clarify, Recrear is an international non-profit organization that delivers workshops and trainings focused on leadership and project management skills. Our philosophy is to provide youth with the tools to carry out their own community development projects and leadership initiatives.

My experience was nothing short of amazing. Here are a couple of us at the base of Mount Pichincha in Quito, Ecuador.

So, where to begin….

Well, first off there’s the International/Intercultural Atmosphere of the conference. With returning and new members from the U.S., Canada, Russia, Congo, Ecuador, Lebanon, Italy, and Morocco I couldn’t have asked for a more diverse group. While working together, we also had time for team bonding to better get to know each other and share about our home countries and lifestyles. There were many intellectual debates covering a myriad of issues from processed American food to what it’s like growing up in a foreign country.

Then, there’s the work aspect. Recrear is organized to maintain a Horizontal division of Power. This means that we strive to maintain everyone’s voice in the actions and decisions Recrear makes. Although we don’t go around asking each person for their opinion, since that would be a little ridiculous, everyone is open to join in on Board Meetings and even drop in on department meetings to provide input. I really appreciated this philosophy, being one of the youngest in attendance, since it gave me the confidence to put my ideas out there and debate a little with returning members. Not only did this enrich my experience but it also benefitted the progress of Recrear overall.

Even after the conference ended, the atmosphere of the conference lingers on. It’s our motivation for the coming year’s work while we eagerly await upcoming projects and of course, RecrearMagnify 2013. Emails, phone calls and lots of Skype get us through the difficulties of working remotely but it’s worth it. What really brought everything home for me was getting to work with Youth Leaders from Recrear’s latest 100 Voices Project. 10 youth leaders who head youth groups and initiatives in their communities met with Recrear members for an intercultural exchange and to participate in a RecrearParticipate training workshops. It was a great way for us to see the effects of Recrear projects and meet with the students benefitting from our work.

I think I’ll leave this post at that. If you’re interested in finding out more, check out Recrear’s blog here, and don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. I always love answering Recrear questions, explaining what we do and how to get involved! Shoot me an email at kraja@recrear.info.

Peace & Love,

Kamya