We’re very excited to be offering a special event for the young people and adolescents in our cleft community – a youth camp in the Term 1 School Holidays next year!

If you, or your child will be aged between 10-18 in April next year, then you’re eligible to participate in our 3-day, 2-night camp in Whangaparaoa, Auckland!

The camp is brought to you by a dedicated team led by Kenny Ardouin (a person born with a cleft) with the assistance and support of Cleft New Zealand, to design and deliver an epic camp experience full of fun activities, meaningful workshops, good food and excellent company! As part of the camp, you will be asked to take part in a few short surveys from a research team at the University of Canterbury to understand your experiences at camp.

The camp has been funded thanks to a generous grant from Lotteries Health Research. Although the camp has been paid for, we ask all attendees to pay a $100 deposit. This helps us to ensure your commitment to attend, as it’s important we accurately estimate numbers. Your deposit is fully refundable if you attend the camp, or you could choose to donate the camp cost to Cleft New Zealand – it’s entirely up to you. If the deposit requirement would be prohibitive to you/your child attending, please contact us – we will review cases of financial hardship on an individual basis.

In addition, we are able to subsidise travel for people attending from wherever you are in Aotearoa, so just because you don’t live in Auckland, it doesn’t mean you will miss out. Make sure you register early though as places on the camp are limited!

Many people with cleft have found peer support from other people with lived experience of cleft to be a valuable support mechanism on the cleft journey and camps can be a great way to build your support network, confidence and self-esteem.