Haddonfield Middle School student Megan Meany was one of four delegates from the Philadelphia chapter of Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV) International to take part in a month-long summer trip to Rome, where the 11-year-old participated in educational exercises with delegates from around the world.
“The idea is to get them together with kids from other nations to get them to have international relationships, friendships and get to know each other with the idea of building up more justice and a more peaceful world,” explained Fernando Romero-Porro, president of the CISV Philadelphia chapter.
The organization was started by Dr. Doris Allen in 1951 to bring children from around the world together to learn and respect different and common values. The first CISV meeting was held that year in Cincinnati, and since then, the organization has continued the tradition of helping kids form international relationships and help promote peace.
Though he did not attend the program, Romero-Porro’s kids have gone through it. Upon returning, he saw that they became more confident and felt more comfortable in social situations.
“One of the characteristics of CISV kids is that they are very, very inclusive,” he explained. “Everybody is welcoming … I know that groups of kids don’t want to include one kid for some activities (at school), and I see my kids jumping in and saying, ‘No, I don’t feel comfortable doing this; why should we be excluding somebody else?’”
Though the aim of the program is to help kids grow in peace and form relationships, they also learn leadership skills. For Meany, the mission was a success.
“I’d say the biggest takeaway was the friendships I made,” she recalled. “I feel like I’ve known some of these people for so long, even though I’ve only ever been with them for a month. And I’ve kept in touch with everyone from the camp.”
The Village program had a camp-like format packed with team-building exercises, conversations about stereotypes and learning about each other’s cultures and languages and games. There were also delegates from Brazil, Columbia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Israel, Czech Republic, Australia, France, Italy and Norway.
Meany’s mom, Susie, noted that the experience sparked her daughter’s interest in the world at home.
“It was just a really cool experience for her because it sparked a lot more curiosity at home for her, at least in our family, about where all these kids lived,” she explained. “We knew what country they came from, but we looked on the map for where exactly their town was.”
Susie had also been through the program as a teenager and wanted to share the experience with her children.
“I still remember the feeling that I felt arriving back home, and just like Megan said, I remember being like, ‘I can’t believe I just navigated this adventure,” she remembered. “Even though I was with other people, to do it without the direct support of my parents at the time, I just remember the feeling that I had and I’ve always wanted for my children to have the same experience.”
Susie is still in contact with people she met through the program.
CISV Philadelphia will hold a Barbie-themed mini-camp for kids in grades four and higher from Friday, Oct. 20, to Sunday, Oct. 22. Members and non-members of CISV are welcome. The mini-camp is similar to other programs done in the summer but on a more local-level.
To register for the event, visit https://philly.cisvusa.org/event/cisv-philly-mini-camp/.
To learn more about the CISV chapter or to volunteer, visit https://philly.cisvusa.org/.
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