School Councils Camp encourages students to be ambassadors for democracy

30 boys and girls from across the country learned all about democracy in Moldova at the second annual School Councils Camp, aimed at students from grades 9 to 11.

The event ran from July 10 to 14 and was organized by the Center for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET) in partnership with UNDP Moldova. It was launched as part of the “Enhancing democracy in Moldova through inclusive and transparent elections” project, financed by the United Kingdom and USAID.

During the five-day camp, students got involved in dozens of activities. They took part in leadership exercises, developed projects for their schools, attended simulations of electoral processes and discussed how they may improve the activities of school councils in their home communities. A training session on diction and public speaking was particularly popular amongst attendees.

Dividing into several teams, students got the chance to create real projects to implement in their home communities and worked to find financial resources for them. To promote their ideas, they ran miniature election campaigns and voted for the best proposals. The projects that received the most votes were awarded.

Doina Bordeianu, Director of the Center for Continuous Electoral Training (CCET), says that the objective of this camp is to educate young people about electoral processes so that they become responsible citizens in the future.

“Through this camp, which we organize for the second consecutive year, we wish to guide young people so in the future they become good electors, good councilors, mayors, or even MPs. Over the years, we have organized a series of contests, information campaigns, and, more recently, we have a school book which will be used in optional classes of electoral education starting with the new year of study. Through these activities, including the School Councils Camp, we train promoters of democracy, so that when they return to school, to their locality, they would share this information,” states Doina Bordeianu.

Civic activism should be cultivated since childhood — that’s the opinion of trainer Aliona Plăcintă: “I hope these students will go home motivated to make some changes. We’ve created posters with the school projects that can be implemented and it is quite real that 80% of them will identify financial resources and complete their projects.”

Sabina Șonțovoi is a student in the 10th grade at a high school in Sîngera. Thanks to the knowledge she learned at the School Councils Camp, she has decided to run for the position of student council member in her school.

“We had very interesting activities and I’ve learned new things about democratic processes. Now I know a lot more about the activities of a student council. Up until now, I was never a member of this structure because I didn’t have the courage to get involved. Thanks to this camp, I gained some courage and I want to run for a councillor position or even for the president.”

Vadim Sîncu, a student in the 9th grade at a school in Chișinău, told us that he will share the knowledge he learned at the camp with his colleagues: “I used to have a different idea about the school councils, but here I learned a lot of new information about these structures, about the fact that periodically there are councillors and presidential elections. These five days were a great experience. I liked the activities very much.”

Student council member Maria Cujbă, a 10th grader at the “Dante Alighieri” high school, has worked with her council for three years already. The information she learned from the trainers will help her run for a new mandate.

“I’ve understood that school elections are a democratic process for all grades, not only for older students. Starting with the new school year, I will share all the information learned here with other colleagues. I will also propose some modifications to the process of electing the school council members. I hope that my colleagues will support my proposals,” says the young woman.

The 30 participants at the camp were selected from 125 applications. This year is the second edition of the School Councils Camp.