Popular fast food chain attempts to empower kids in summer camp

By Layan Damanhouri Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Learning life skills and building a child’s character has been very rewarding and a useful way to spend the long summer. This was voiced by mothers and daughters who attended the closing ceremony of Al-Baik’s annual summer camp, one of the fast food chain’s corporate social responsibility programs. A program that focuses on how to build self-confidence and skills such as time management, financial management, and learning to make ecofriendly choices is not often found in schools, says mother of Nayar, who registered her 10-year-old daughter in the 4-week summer camp. Partnering with the Jeddah Science Center, boys and girls participated in separate programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics using internationally approved methods that rely on practical skills rather than traditional teaching. Girls were taught arts and crafts, nutrition, financial investment, public speaking, recycling, science experiments, and sports. The theme “Heroes of the household” attempts to empower kids with hands-on skills and building self-confidence in a daily intensive summer camp. The program adds new activities each year and screens potential instructors before assigning them to classes, according to marketing director of Al-Baik Mai Abu-Ghazala. Around 600 instructors led the activities that were held in Jeddah and Makkah. Such useful skills are needed for these kids who will enter the job market in the future, according to the administration of the Jeddah Science Center. Albaik celebrated its 15th year of the program on Sunday. “I enjoyed it very much because I like creating new things,” says 10-year-old Nayar Al-Seraihi. “I found it to be a unique program, rarely found in other centers. They make it in a way that’s interactive that the kids enjoy and learn easily,” says her mother. “She learned how to be more responsible and proactive.”