Girl's Camp

Kimberly

Kimberly is a five-year old growing up in the village of Cristo Rey. During the summer when she is on a break from going to school at PDS, she, like most girls in the village, helps her Mom and extended family at home with chores and plays in the yard with her sisters. Until the summer of 2007 when Sports Servants initiated a Girls Camp Cristo Rey, she did not have the opportunity to play organized games with her other friends in the village. Since this time, she has grown in her love for playing the game, but has also benefitted in her time spent building friendships with the other girls in the village.

Imagine a world where a soccer game is held every night in a village, but the only players are male… a world where girls only have the chance to play on organized sports teams when they reach the high school level… a world where it is commonplace for a 14 year-old girl to forego school, friendships, and her childhood to stay home to take care of her siblings and the household chores… Since the initiation of the Sports Servants Girls Camp in Cristo Rey, girls now have an outlet and a chance to play.

The Girl's Story

Look at the nations and watch–
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
Habakkuk 1:5

In 2007, the first female volunteers for Sports Servants travelled to Belize. We packed our bags, informed that about 1/3 of the campers from the inaugural summer camps had been girls. We came to Belize wanting to interact with the girls, knowing how lucky we were to grow up in an American society that allows girls to play on their own teams & has female athletes to serve as role models for young girls. We wanted to be a voice for these girls telling them that “They can play too.”

During the first week of camps in 2007, no little girls showed up to the camp in the village of Ranchito. Zac had told me that about 1/3 of the campers last summer were girls, and they didn’t have any girls from Sports Servants to look up to. While this was discouraging to the female volunteers initially, a group of Belizean girls called us into something even better.

In the village of Cristo Rey, the Sports Servants female volunteers could not walk to their house from the guys' house without having a fan club of little girls attach themselves to the Americans. I asked myself, "Why were we traveling to a neighboring village when there were plenty of girls yearning for our attention in our home village?" As we walked down the palm tree-laden street in Cristo Rey, Zac gave us the freedom to stay there the following week to host a soccer camp for the local girls.

As we walked around the village, inviting the girls to the camp, I still remember the look on many of the girls faces when we invited them to a camp “solo chiquitas”- only for girls. No one had given them “their turn” before, but this was it. Monday morning, we welcomed 22 eager girls, ranging in ages from 4-14 to the Cristo Rey Fútbol Field. Some came out in skirts or dresses, and more stepped onto the field barefoot. They did the drills and played the games we asked of them, but when I think about the girls camp, I think of the one girl, Yolanie, who came up to me day after day asking, “Are we going to get to play today?” I was so thankful that we could provide an opportunity where I could answer that question positively every day. She loved the game, but never had the opportunity to develop her skills or play outside of a PE class at her school.

I left Belize that summer in 2007 worrying that our last afternoon together playing together “solo chiquitas” in our yard was the last time those girls had an opportunity to play. But, I realized that the first summer was just the first step in giving them their own opportunity to play. This fueled my desire to continue to unwrap the Story God had planned for these girls in Belize.

The countless hours spent praying, planning, and dreaming about what could be for those girls in Belize all came to realization a sunny July afternoon in 2008. The second installment of Girls’ Camp included volleyball in addition to the soccer and teambuilding that occurred during the initial version. The 2008 camp occurred for two weeks, and was staffed by five US volunteers. The following is a piece from my journal this past summer:

The addition of volleyball has been a hit so far, and it still amazes me that these girls come out so faithfully every day. As I sat back today after camp and watched them play volleyball for about 20 minutes, the sound of their laughter was beautiful. What a humbling feeling to know that these girls had the chance to play today because we were there. Often, as I sit watching what is unfolding before me, I am so grateful to be a part of this.
Abby Butler