Deutsche Post DHL to offer summer camps to young people

Once again this year, Deutsche Post DHL will offer Camp4us, a comprehensive two-week summer camp that fosters the individual skills and strengths of young people. The concept is being carried out by the world’s leading mail and logistics group in co-operation with the Teach First Germany initiative and the German Children and Youth Foundation, which serve as partners who provide educational support to the programme.

This year, four summer camps will be held in Germany from 11 – 24 July. A total of 240 young people in the seventh and eighth school years will have an opportunity at the camps to have some holiday fun and work on exciting projects. Considerations about the young people’s individual futures and their occupational planning will play an important role throughout all topics. Education is one of the focal points of Deutsche Post DHL’s commitment to society and is firmly anchored in the group’s strategy. This year, the summer camps will be held in Augustusburg, Bad Lausick, Mölln and Müden.

Educating young people is a major challenge

‘Camp4us is a unique project’, said Jürgen Gerdes, the member of the Board of Management who oversees the MAIL division at Deutsche Post DHL. ‘It gives young people an opportunity to get away from their everyday lives and discover new interests, explore their strengths and, above all, gain motivation to tackle the challenges lying ahead. The project is so successful that we have added other camps this year and it will remain a fixed part of our educational support for young people in the future.’

‘Educating young people is one of the major challenges facing our society’, said Walter Scheurle, member of the Board of Management and labour director at Deutsche Post DHL. ‘It opens up opportunities for the future and is the key to prosperity, growth and progress. Deutsche Post DHL is assuming its corporate responsibility particularly in the area of education. Camp4us is one of ways we purposefully work to help young people grow.’

Ulf Matysiak, educational director of Teach First Germany, also believes in the summer camps, ‘The Camp4us summer camps are a real plus for secondary-school students as well as for the fellows of Teach First Germany. The students can return to the classroom with new confidence. Within the context of their teacher training, the fellows gain valuable experience for their upcoming work in schools’.

‘There is nothing more motivating than discovering your skills and working together with others for two weeks to create something great’, Heike Kahl, managing director of the German Children and Youth Foundation, said in summarising the effect of Camp4us. ‘Our concept of project learning, future orientation and leisure-time activities stays with the young boys and girls who attend the summer camps for a long time. Their parents have told us so.’

Topics explored by the students have a practical and social focus

Camp4us was begun in 2009. The summer camps are a project organised by Deutsche Post DHL und Teach First Germany, an initiative for which the Group is the largest founding sponsor. The foundation was brought into the programme to provide educational support. The children attending the camps attend the seventh and eighth school years at secondary schools in Germany.

In addition to the fellows from Teach First Germany, exceptional personal and professional university graduates from all subjects, and employees from the German Children and Youth Foundation who have teaching qualifications, volunteers from Deutsche Post DHL will provide project support in the camps and assist camp managers. During their leisure time, they also work with young people as part of attractive programmes.

The projects focus on such things as foreign languages, creativity, art, sports, health, the environment, nature and media work. One important aspect is that the topics explored by the students have a practical and social focus. As part of Camp4us, the young boys and girls can gain important qualifications that will give them fresh confidence and motivation for the new school year.