“YMLP I don’t wanna go home” were among the last words chanted as campers packed their bags and left this year’s Young Men’s Leadership Project (YMLP Camp). Camp YMLP is an 8-day, multi-ethnic camp focused on empowering young men to be service leaders in their community. This year’s camp was held from July 14 to 21 in the Begova Korija camp in Krushevo. The campers were joined by 30 Peace Corps staff members and local Macedonian volunteers to serve as facilitators, counselors and support staff for the week.

Over the course of 8 days, our campers experienced the great outdoors of sleeping in tents and even learning to prepare their own meals in the forest. Campers spent the entire week in small teams learning, competing and camping together. All teams were tested at the end of the week at the coveted YMLP Olympic Games where all teams competed in a series of water balloon sports and obstacles to crown a winner. This year, the DARK KNIGHTS led by Peace Corps Volunteer Kevin Young came out on top. In addition to games and team building activities, campers had the opportunity to learn about leadership, civic responsibility, ecology, employability and personal development. One of the highlights of the week happened when our campers completed a camp service project where they created trails in the woods for local hikers. To our alumni – we hope you’ll use the tracking step on your next adventurous step. We especially want to thank our corporate partners and donors Mermeren Kombinat, OKTA, SASA Mine, TAV, Alkaloid and Kromberg and Schubert Airports, ESM, EED, Horus as well as individual donors for providing the monetary donations to make the camp possible.