`They dip bread into chocolate for breakfast in France - it's disgusting," says Jonathan Rooney (16). The Austrians are worse, according to Jojo Mulready (19): "They eat snails for breakfast". Although these well-travelled gourmets may sound like the pampered offspring of middle-class parents, nothing could be further from the truth. As early school-leavers from inner-city Dublin, Jonathan, from Crumlin, and Jojo, from Pearse Street, travelled abroad to participate in teenage workcamps organised by Voluntary Service International, (VSI).
Well-known for its Africa/Asia exchange programme, VSI is a branch of Service Civil International, which was set up after the first World War to promote peace and social understanding through voluntary service and international exchanges. The Dublin office of VSI runs teenage exchange programmes in Ireland and Europe for "disadvantaged youth" and the Crossing Bridges programme in Ireland, to create links between North and South.
VSI works "to give people a chance", says the co-ordinator of the teenage workcamp programme, Trena Ratcliffe. Most of the teenagers involved have dropped out of school and attend a government Youthreach scheme. They would probably spend their summer bored and restless, hanging around the city streets, if it weren't for VSI's workcamp scheme. Workcamps are often part of a wider rehabilitation programme for young people who have been involved in drugs, joyriding or other criminal activity. However, re-education is a gradual process, says Trena, "and you have to be realistic. We have one boy who had promised to stop stealing cars but he went back to it and we're not sure if he should be allowed to go to a camp. The Youthreach programme thinks he will be okay if he gets away, so we'll probably let him go."
Next month, five Irish teenagers will be spending 10 days in Co Cork getting to know 10 young people from Northern Ireland and Wales. For many it will be the first time they have met Protestants. Set in a beautiful old farmhouse in Macroom, the camp's task is to construct a maze for local children. Last year, Jonathan and other teenagers spent two weeks painting and cooking on a French camp - for this summer's return visit, eight French teenagers will be in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, helping an Irish group to renovate a building for the Catholic Youth Council.
"We try to organise camps with the same groups," says Trena, "so we can build up relationships." Links have been maintained with a Dutch group who spent two weeks on a camp to renovate a youth centre in Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow. "We're penpals with some of the Dutch people," says Natalie Killalee (20), who has volunteered in Finland and Italy with VSI. Although each camp has a clearly-defined, measurable task, workshops and social activities are an integral part. The teenagers discuss issues such as drugs, racism, prostitution, homosexuality, shoplifting, domestic violence and politics.
"We did a role-play on being refugee, so we could understand what it was like. Before I went on a camp, I'd never met a refugee," says Natalie, who shared basic conditions in Brittas Bay with Indonesian refugees living in the Netherlands. "You learn to open your mind. You always learn something new," she says, picking up baby Dylan, who is starting young with VSI - he will be attending his first workcamp this summer.
The teenagers learn new skills, and gain qualifications. Even the preparation (getting a passport, changing money etc) can help them obtain national vocational certificates. Trena believes the exchange programme shows the teenagers they can do things for themselves and increases their ambition and self-worth.
"Most of these teenagers come from backgrounds where their first holiday abroad is a `sun holiday' where they don't experience any culture - they meet Irish people and drink a lot. We try to get them before they get into that and then after VSI camps, they often travel abroad independently and visit people they met on other camps."
"I'd never done any gardening before I went to a workcamp," says Robbie Askin (19) who lives in a north inner-city hostel, and recently participated in a weekend workcamp in Cork. Kieran Farrell (18), from Clondalkin, had his first experience of gardening and of life abroad by volunteering to work on an organic farm in the Netherlands. But he insisted on a special dispensation - no macrobiotic food for him.
The experience of meeting people from different backgrounds and cultures creates a noticeable difference in confidence and social skills between experienced and novice workcampers.
"The best part is meeting new people," says self-assured, veteran camper Jojo, who has attended many Irish camps, a street theatre camp in Italy and spent a few days working in a creche on an Austrian camp. "It also makes you open your mind to things you haven't thought about before - like the word `knacker' for travellers." Jojo has now progressed to supporting the workcamp leaders and, although he finds it hard to imagine a future job, he thinks he might like to become a youth worker. Before being considered for workcamps, teenagers have to raise the £50 fee, show they are committed to working in groups and promise to keep to the terms of the VSI contract. Signed by each participant, the contract stipulates teenagers will smoke only in designated areas, respect everyone else, work for four to six hours a day, and will not use drugs (although small quantities of alcohol are permitted). The contract also says: "I understand that
I must respect everyone else on the camp and be tolerant of their culture. I understand that picking on someone else because they are different in some way can lead to people feeling hurt or bullied." What happens if a teenager breaks the contract? "It's a social education programme and the group make most of the decisions," explains Trena. "On one camp last year, someone pulled a knife and after a discussion by the group, they decided he should be sent home. It isn't a case of the leaders doling out punishment. On another camp, a French teenager stole expensive training shoes and the group decided he could stay if he admitted it and brought them back."
Experience shows that VSI can make a difference. When he was 16, Mike (not his real name) from Dublin's northside, made a living "liberating" bicycles. As part of his rehab, he became involved with VSI and went to Italy and France on short exchanges. He then spent three months volunteering in France, where he met a French girl and is now volunteering on a farm in Belgium for a year. This summer, Mike is not stealing bikes and he is not on a package holiday going to nightclubs full of drunk Irish teenagers - he is travelling around Europe exploring the culture and lifestyle with his French girlfriend.
