BSDaT - Berchtold Software Development and Training
Susanne Berchtold

It has been one of my dreams since I came to Namibia in 2005, to initiate a camp for children. To give them a place where they can play and learn at the same time, affording them the opportunity to just be children.

I am therefore so grateful that we can now launch this children’s camp. We are looking forward to organizing such an event every year or even twice a year and we hope to hear the laughter of many children which will leave us with unforgettable memories.

Initially it started off like a "fun day" for a certain number of kids and after some years we attempted to get closer to what was our initial goal: bonding with the kids, let the kids form new friendships and connect, and work out something together. We now have workshops as integral part of the camp where we talk and have role-playing regarding democracy and anti racism and we have loads of sport and other activities. The children work in groups of seven, each group has a mentor that is responsible to generate a good team spirit. Groups will compete against each other in a friendly manner; this is an attempt to coax everyone to give their best.

In 2012 children and volunteers all stayed together for the first time over a period of three days. It was an incredible experience and I have no words to describe it all! The team spirit was exceptionally high, everyone participated and excitement was rife; from all the letters and many words of "thank you" which we received, we realised we had created a memorable life-changing experience. Based on that, we now continue and wish to make it even better and give the kids even more of a motivation, something they can utilise in the future.

Since 2022 we organize various types of camps during the year and additionally, we visit school where we entertain the kids with afternoon/weekend activities.

Begin of 2024, Berchtold Software Development and Training became the sole representative of the International Bebras Challenge in Namibia and we are very busy setting up our annual challenge and involving as many schools/kids as possible. With this step, we bring computational thinking (logical and analytical thinking) to Namibias children! Join us and become part of this exciting movement.

We would like to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports us with money, material, ideas and who believes in us and in this idea. Yes, we do realise that there are so many children out there and we are just not able to  help them all but if we do not start at some point, we will never succeed!