Future of summer camp for refugee children uncertain as student founders graduate

The future is uncertain for a popular Vancouver summer camp that helps newly arrived refugee children because the founders two university students running it in their spare time graduate next year.

Duncan Bernardo, who's studying international economics at the University of British Columbia, launched the summer camp with Dakota Koch in 2016. It started with just one camp but has now expanded to two, both of which are fully booked.

"The whole goal is to give [the children] the confidence and skills they need so that when they start attending schools in Canada they can more easily make friends and do better in class," Bernardo said.

The B.C. Newcomer Camp is a mixture of English lessons in the morning with certified instructors who speak a wide range of languages, from Spanish to Kurdish and outdoors activities and sports in the afternoon.

Transcending language barriers

The games they learn to play like the tag game "grounders" or "cops-and-robbers" are things that show up on many school playgrounds.

Learning how to play before classes launch helps ease the social transition into school even across language barriers, Bernardo said.

He knows first-hand what it's like to be immersed in a foreign country without speaking the language, having moved to Spain as a child.

"I was able to make friends out at recess because I knew how to play soccer," he told CBC's On The Coast.

"So, even though I couldn't talk to other kids I could kick the ball around."

That was one of the original inspirations behind the summer camps.

'The most fun they've ever had'

Despite the long, unpaid hours required to runthe camp, Bernardo says it's worth it.

"A lot of [the children] have come from really, really unfortunate kind of pasts coming from war-torn countries, having to flee their homes, and a lot of them haven't really had a chance to really have a carefree childhood," he said.

"A lot of them say it's the most fun they've ever had in their life."

Italso eases some of the childcare burden on their parents, with camp providing everything from bus passes to lunches.

Three years in, the founders aren't sure what will happen next year after they graduate and face the possibility of leaving the region.

"Basically, we found it impossible to find someone who has the abilities and skills to run a charity and is able to commit 20 to 30 hours a week with no monetary compensation," Bernardo said.

"Right now we're trying to fundraise $30,000 by the end of the summer so we can hire an executive director."

Extra funding would go to expanding the project and opening a third camp in the Tri-Cities area.