MAGALIESBURG, South Africa -- Neo Pertunia, a 15-year-old girl from Soweto, recalls nervously packing for a 10-day summer camp this month, the longest she would ever be away from home.

She stuffed two pairs of jeans, five T-shirts, and her beloved baby-blue high-top sneakers into a bag. And she carried with her the sound of her worried mother's voice, "Please take care of yourself, Neo."

Eight days into Camp Sizanani, founded by a man who ran a camp on remote Echo Lake in Maine for 30 years, the smiling teenager said she would leave a changed person. "When I get home, I'll teach my family everything I learned," Pertunia said. "There's so much to say. But I especially want to talk to my mother about sex. Before, I was afraid, but now I know I have to."

In the green hills northwest of Johannesburg, in the heat of the Southern Hemisphere's summer, a camp for children affected by AIDS has been a revelation for those from the dusty streets of Soweto, a sprawling urban township of more than 2.5 million people. The summer camp, a ritual for millions of American children, is a precious rarity in Africa. Here, the children have had their first taste of endless days of planned, fun-filled activities. And for an hour every day, they learn about AIDS and how to protect themselves.

It started one year ago because of one man's dream. Philip Lilienthal, 64, the former director of Camp Winnebago in Fayette, Maine, believed he "needed a challenge, to go where there was a need."

Leaving Camp Winnebago in the hands of his son, Andy, he opened operations in the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic, in a country where an estimated 5 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In one year, his camps have brought in 781 young South Africans for 10-day or two-week sessions, at a combined cost of just $370,000. Almost all the funding came from those on Lilienthal's long e-mail list, including families of his Maine campers and counselors.

Now he faces the challenge of getting more children in camp -- in South Africa, and eventually around the continent. He's soliciting contributions from corporations, foundations, and the US government, but securing more funds in the future is far from certain. Still, he hasn't let that stop him.

"I want to be all over Africa," said Lilienthal, a retired lawyer from Virginia and a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia in the mid-1960s. "I've wanted to get back in Africa for 35 years and do stuff. Everyone thinks I'm so philanthropic and generous, but I'm not that at all. This is exactly what I want to be doing."   Continued...

Source: Boston Globe