Family and Community Camp
Please join the Family and community Gathering to create a society of peers, listening and practicing, deepening our insights, exchanging our experiences and aspirations for the future of the world we inhabit together.
Community life – creativity – contemplation and nature are the key words of the Shambhala Family Camp.
In a park full of majestic trees, you can camp or stay in a room and enter a slow time. For eight days, you will be happy to simply walk from one place to another, accompany the children in their games, do your Qi-Gong or yoga exercises in the middle of nature, meditate, meet people from many countries, and sit with them in the open air to exchange and enjoy a mainly vegetarian cuisine.
This program has been going on for over 25 years and allows adults to meet, practice and exchange together, and children to experience a natural environment with a lot of freedom and kindness.
Children from 3 to 10 years old will be welcomed every morning at the Aloka house from 9:00 am to 12:15 pm and will be taken care of by a professional educator and young education interns. They will be divided into two groups, the little ones up to 6 years old and the older ones; children under 3 years old have to be accompanied by a parent.
In the afternoon, the daycare is open for a one and a half hour. Parents and daycare staff coordinate to organize this time.
This organization allows parents time for personal activities in the morning and group activities with or without the children in the afternoon.
Child-friendly kitchen.
Description of the daily activities
Morning activities for adults:
- Meditation, contemplative walking, talks and exercises: art of life and creativity
Afternoon before snack time: for parents
- One hour with parents with meditation and a talking circle on a topic related to parenting
After snack :
- Parent-child afternoon activities
- body expression and world dances workshop
- 4 hands massage and sound bath workshop
- My plate of flowers as a painting – Discovery walk in nature
- Collective creation workshop: Calligraphy, comics, art in nature, songs
- Family Meditation
Evenings for all
- Night walk, disco evening, campfire and evening market in the surrounding villages
Family Camp Staff
Aurélie de Schoutheete, coordinator
Aurélie is an osteopath and lives in Brussels with her two children and husband.
She is also a meditation instructor and co-organizes an online meditation sangha for moms called “maman-cercle”. She has also been organizing women’s circles with her sister for the past 10 years. She is active in the eco feminist collective “Mères au Front” in Belgium.
“For me, the path of parenthood is a real spiritual path. When you become a parent, you don’t have much time to practice meditation or connect with a sangha. Yet that’s when sangha and practice are most important because you need a village and a clear mind to educate a child, that’s why Family camp is a great idea: it allows us to share with others, to take care of ourselves through practice and to show our children that it’s important to us. ”
Catherine Schmit, coordinator
Catherine is a social worker and a practicing dancer.
Based in Limousin since 2012, she lived in Dechen Chöling for four and a half years before building her family with her partner and son. Trained in contemplative psychology, she organizes meetings to foster the Karuna training path in France.
“The great adventure of becoming a parent often brings me back to the essential need to exchange with other parents.This responds to the need I feel to find a fertile “ground”, rich in human values in order to offer my son a spiritual baggage in a society that has become so materialistic.”
Herbert Elsky
Each afternoon, artist and Dharma Art teacher Herbert Elsky will lead creative workshops for all. Children are also welcome:
Let’s open up to our power of expression.
Herbert Elsky has been teaching Contemplative Art and Shambhala Art all over Europe for more than 30 years. He lives near Dechen Chöling where he has created his own theater, Las Balubas Theater. There he presents surprising and magical “sound journeys”.
Family Camp Information Sessions
If you would like to know more about the family camp, we have scheduled information meetings by Zoom.
Sunday, April 16, 8:30 pm in English
Monday, April 17, 8.30 pm in French
Sunday April 23, 8.30 pm in French
Please choose a date on this form to receive the zoom link: Info Session Form
Practical Information
Arrival day (27 July, Thursday): Orientation talk at 8 pm. You’re invited to come from 4 pm in order to register and settle in your room. Dinner is served at 6.45 pm.
End of programme (4 August, Friday): Closing circle and Banquet in the evening
Departure day (5 August, Saturday): You may leave anytime (no program). You’re welcome to stay for lunch.
| FAMILY CAMP 2023 PRICES | |||
| (Euro) | Adults | Children (daycare expense) | |
| … | … | 3-12 yrs | < 3 yrs |
| Programme price | |||
| Standard | 200 | 100 | see * |
| Early Bird (< 27 April) | 170 | 85 | see * |
| Concession | 150 | 75 | see * |
| Full board (standard accommodation + all meals) |
50 €/night | 25 €/night | free |
* Children below 3 years old are welcome at Dechen Chöling, under your responsibility. You can bring with you a Nanny or an au pair – they will pay 25.- € a day for food and accomodation.
