Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the global social enterprise Camps International marks its anniversary by doubling down on providing impactful education to students across the globe through in-person international expeditions and their award-winning online learning programme RealWorld Studies following the re-opening of global travel.
The Covid-19 pandemic meant that students could no longer experience the challenges the world and its citizens face first-hand due to the global halt in travel. Camps International subsequently pivoted,developed and launched its online learning programme, Real World Studies (RWS), in 2020 to ensure they could still offer that connection between students and their camps worldwide.
RWS consists of field study programmes aligned to core subject areas and linked to global curriculums including UK, IB, US and Australia. Since its inception in 2020, Real World Studies has connected more than 4700 students in 66 schools to the Camps International permanent staff at campsites in Kenya, Tanzania, Borneo, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru through live interactive online sessions.
Topics covered in the programme include sustainable development, food and water security and health and sanitation, with student participation from the UAE, UK, Australia, USA, South Africa, Malaysia, Mexico and more. In the UAE, 18 schools have participated in the Real World Studies programme, with more than 3000 students actively utilising the learning resources.
To bridge the gap between educators and students through RWS, Camps International has taken a substantial step forward by introducing the Real World Studies Think Tanks. These conference-style events present an exciting opportunity for teachers to collaborate on the best ways to ignite passion amongst students on the future of sustainable educational travel. The next Real World Studies Think Tank will take place in Kenya between 24th and 28th October 2022.
Having operated for 20 years, Camps International offer life-changing expeditions at their permanent camps across seven countries, including Kenya and Cambodia. Since its inception, 30,000 students and teachers have been on expeditions across 400 projects, impacting more than 120,000 lives across the globe. By participating in these expeditions, students and teachers develop essential real-life skills such as collaboration, decision making, analysis, and moral and cultural responsibility while developing a stronger sense of belonging to a sustainable cause for their future.
Speaking on the organisation’s milestone, Stuart Rees Jones, Founder and CEO of Camps International, said: “Over the past 20 years, we have improved and excelled at bringing the future of our society, our children, closer to issues and problems faced by people around the world through active engagement working with our community partners. When the pandemic struck, our Real World Studies programme allowed us to continue to provide students and teachers with extraordinary real-world knowledge and shape them as responsible global citizens in line with UN SDG4 and SDG 13. Our goal at Camps International will always be to ensure that international knowledge and experiences are available to everyone.”
