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Our Global Camp history started in 1885.

The camp is not only sports fields, green areas and facilities, but a place where the new generations are inspired by their future and build memories that last life time.

-Frost Valley YMCA, USA

YMCA Camp History 

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Camping in the USA

Camping became a cornerstone of YMCA programming in 1885 in the USA, when the YMCA started Camp Dudley, America's first known summer camp program, at Orange Lake, New York.

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Today YMCAs in the USA have 234 camps in the United States.

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Camping in Europe 

Camping has been part of YMCAs around Europe since last century. Currently, the YMCA has 87 camps in 27 Countries in Europe.

YMCA in Kosovo Camp History

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Timeline

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  • 2014

A task group was established to determine what facilities would be needed to help our movement become self-sustainable and to better deliver our mission. Staff, volunteers, Board members and senior leadership after much consultation concluded that a camp was the way forward.

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  • 2015

The Danish Y's Men visited the Balkans and held a meeting with our National General Secretary, Dorina Lluka Davies, in which they said they would support an application for a building. Later that year our application for a camp to Y's men International Region Denmark fund was approved.

 

  • 2016

Memorandum of Understanding with the National Ministry of Education signed to promote the camp throughout Kosovo schools and municipalities, including the various minorities and ethnicities.

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  • 2016

Y USA & World Service support our movement by partnering with us. Our CEO Dorina attends a conference in Frost Valley YMCA where a silent auction raises funds which World Service doubled.

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  • 2017

Our movement agrees on a deal for the land in Pjetershan. Making this the home of the new camp.

 

  • 2018

Memorandum of Understanding signed with the National Ministry of Culture, Sport & Youth for financial support to the project, and kept working with the YMCA to boost youth empowerment over the next 5 years.

 

  • 2018

Ground broken and building begins on the camp, with river banks being reinforced, electricity lines placed, access roads opened and foundations laid.

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  • 2019

Accommodation houses enter the final phase of construction, in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development and the municipality of Gjakova.

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  • 2020

Global pandemic impacts the process of building the camp. Processes move slowly.

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