2023-08-01 03:00:49
Giulio is laughing in a relaxed manner today, just as young people like to laugh on a carefree summer Saturday afternoon. “It’s the best week of the year,” he opens. “I’ve been looking forward to this week all year.” Then he stopped laughing because Marie painfully reminded him: “Unfortunately we have to go home tomorrow, unfortunately the week went by much too quickly again.”
After lunch, the two 15-year-olds sit down by the pond for a while. You participate with 17 other children in an extraordinary Holiday camp part. Once again, the 19 children are accommodated in the wonderfully unobtrusive “Landhotel” in the Lower Austrian municipality Yspertal.
The 19 campers share similar ones fate in their families. Giulio talks openly about his family in Carinthia: “We are triplets home. Both my sisters have eye cancer.“
Marie, who lives near Wels, knows pretty well what that means for her own psyche: “My sister suffers from one incurable immunodeficiency.“
The mood of the children was not bad when they arrived here at the “Landhotel”. This also has to do with the fact that all adult eyes, including those of the hotel staff, are fixed on them. The mood then got even better with each additional day in the camp. Also because nobody has to explain themselves for a long time here. Finally there are other kids who understand their outsider status! Because they too outsider are.
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There is often a lot of shade at home
At home, in their families, the focus is almost inevitably on their critically ill siblings. Giulio explains: “That is absolutely understandable, but in the long run it hurts.”
At home, they can only confide in a few of their peers. Marie says: “I have few real friends who understand my personal problems.”
At home, feelings of guilt and often doubts about their self-worth gnaw at them. Giulio explains: “I often lack any self-confidence. I was even afraid to give a presentation at school.”
The adults try remarkably cautiously to get the children to think differently. There are eight of the adults, which makes for a great childcare ratio. They are a team of eight experienced professionals. They come from psychology, psychotherapy, social work and experiential education.
“Miracle paths” are to be walked in small or large groups in the still relatively intact nature at the southern end of the Waldviertel. The psychologist Judith Raunig explains: “First of all, a child believes that all the sad things only happen to them.”
With the help of very targeted psychotherapeutic-experience-pedagogical interventions, it is easier for the children to gain trust: in themselves, in the other children, in the group, in their carers. For example, when they manage to dumbbell along a rope through the forest with a blindfold over their eyes.
Marie emphasizes that the sheltered environment in the camp is also helpful. “It applies to all of us that nothing from our group can leak out.” Giulio adds: “No one does that either, because none of us want anyone else to do it.”
And back home tomorrow
Very few children look forward to the trip home. Because they know what awaits them at home. Some have to grow up faster in their families. Everyone is stepping back into the second tier after their week of clearly starring. Some also fear the sometimes complicated relationships in their families.
“We don’t hear the question of how we’re doing very often throughout the year,” says Giulio thoughtfully. In any case, he is already looking forward to seeing you again – in the summer of 2024.
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