Dream Camps: Reform through Sport

The Dream Camps, UNEP's Nature and Sports Camps are leadership training programs on sport and the environment for children under the age of 14 years. By combining sport with environmental awareness activities and campaigns, the camps provide an effective vehicle for mobilizing young people into environmental action.

The camps involve children primarily from poor and underprivileged communities in developing countries, who have no regular access to structured sport activities and facilities or to environmental education.

The camps enable the children to realize their sporting dreams and become environmental leaders in their communities. The Nature and Sports Camp is an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Japan based partner organization The Global Sports Alliance.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 31) states in part that “every child has the right to recreation opportunities” and the Nature and Sports Camps Programme endeavours to deliver this right to underprivileged children.

The Nature and Sports Training Camp combines sport training in activities such as basketball, soccer and tennis, with community environmental activities such as recycling, clean-up activities, workshops and tree planting. The first camp is located in Nairobi, Kenya, where the headquarters of UNEP are situated.  It was launched on August 2001 and is managed by the Sadili Oval Sports Club. Since its creation, the camp has engaged over 7,000 children, mainly from the Kibera slums – one of Africa’s biggest slums in sport and environment activities.

The camp uses the services of foreign volunteers coaches and interns who not only provide training on sport and the environment for the children but inspire them to work hard and become role models for their communities.

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