This past camp season, Camp Nuhop had the privilege to come alongside the amazing Ohio nonprofit organization Heal Palestine to offer a first-of-its-kind camp program to provide a safe space to a group of Palestinian families who have been adversely affected by the ongoing war in Gaza.
Camp Heal Palestine was a true collaboration, with Heal Palestine staff, volunteers, and board members, the Local Roots of Wooster food co-op, a contracted Palestinian chef, a camp leadership partner from Pennsylvania, and enthusiastic Camp Nuhop staff all working hard to provide a change of pace and place for innocent victims suffering negative effects from the brutality of war.
The children and their guardians, who flew into Ohio to be at camp with others who had experienced similar traumas, were all in the US to get needed medical treatment at hospitals around the country. Many of them had lost some or all of their family members as well as their limbs. The women — mothers, grandmothers, and aunts — who accompanied these children as they were fitted for prosthetics or underwent surgeries for severe burns received mental health counseling and support from Heal Palestine.
Our camp staff — kitchen team, facilities team, management team, and program facilitators — proudly did whatever it took to extend that emotional support and provide these Palestinian women and children with an experience of respite, love, and healing.
One of Heal Palestine’s goals is to humanize the people of Gaza, but the bonds we forged during their time at Camp Nuhop did so much more than that. We helped Heal Palestine to provide these women and children a place where they could commune, to have a bit of peace and to be present in the here and now. And in return, these war-torn yet resilient campers profoundly and forever changed us. This was the most meaningful project of my life — and the best and most exhausting work of my career thus far. I am so thankful that we, as an organization, opened our arms, our facilities, and our hearts to do this good work for these warm souls.
When their medical treatment is done in the US, Heal Palestine will support them as they move to Egypt. There is so much more to the story, but I wanted to share what I could with people who get it — with fellow camp people. We do important work at camp, and the families and campers we serve — like the Palestinian women and children we worked with through Camp Heal Palestine — change us as much (if not more) as we change them in profound and perspective-altering ways.
On the beach of Camp Nuhop, one of the Camp Heal Palestine participants said to the others, “This is the best day of my life,” as many heads nodded in agreement. It was hard for me to imagine that a day on Pleasant Hill Lake in the middle of Ohio was that day, but on further reflection, I had to admit — it was pretty amazing.
Trevor Dunlap is the executive director and CEO of Camp Nuhop and cofounder of Switchback Designs LLC.
