Every August, LAINI LAND brings girls and young women from The Esplanade out of the city for several days of camping, art-making, outdoor activities and shared time together.

LAINI LAND is the annual summer camping experience within Jamii’s LAINI program, a leadership initiative for girls and young women from The Esplanade neighbourhood. The camp is offered free to LAINI participants and creates an opportunity to spend meaningful time away from everyday routines, experience nature, try new creative practices and build stronger relationships with one another.

For many participants, LAINI LAND has included first experiences such as sleeping in a tent, swimming in a lake or river, cooking outdoors, hiking through forests and spending several days away from the city. Art is part of each year’s camp, with artists invited to lead projects that respond to the setting and give participants different ways to express themselves.

The days are also shaped by simple shared experiences: pitching tents, preparing meals, sitting around a fire, talking, playing, looking at the stars and taking care of one another. These moments are central to LAINI LAND. They give participants space to practise independence, leadership, collaboration and care while creating memories with people they have come to know through Jamii.

2026 - 5th Annual LAINI LAND: Five days of art, nature, friendship, and shared experiences

From August 18 to 22, 2026, Jamii brought 19 girls and young women from The Esplanade to Farming Futures Co-op in Hastings County for the fifth edition of LAINI LAND. Six participants joined for the first time, while 13 returned from previous years.

Over five days, the group swam in the river, visited the cows, tried archery, danced, stretched, jumped on the trampoline, journaled, painted, made friendship bracelets, experimented with T-shirt bleaching and created tote bags inspired by their time on the land.

Nairobi-based musician Liboi, visiting Toronto through Jamii’s Baraza program and its partnership with communities in Nairobi, Kenya, led music workshops throughout the week. LAINI LAND co-lead Ayelen Liberona also shared a fire dance performance around the bonfire.

The week balanced arts and physical activities with slower moments of connection. Participants slept in tents, shared meals, helped serve and clean up, spent time with their peers and contributed to daily camp life. One memorable moment came during a visit to the cows, when the girls watched a calf drinking milk from its mother.

While creating their tote bags, Isorine Marc chose the Swahili word HAMU, meaning passion, as a wish for all the girls taking part.

LAINI LAND 2026 was co-led by Isorine Marc and Ayelen Liberona, with project coordination by Afnan Yakot.

Jamii is grateful to Berkeley Castle, Optic Zone and private donors for supporting LAINI LAND 2026 and helping keep the program free for participants.

2025 - 4th Annual LAINI LAND: A transformative week of creativity, leadership, and connection in nature at Restoule Provincial Park

For its fourth year, LAINI LAND moved to Restoule Provincial Park near North Bay, where 16 girls from The Esplanade spent five days camping, creating art and learning to live together outdoors.

Participants built their own campsite, pitched tents and organized communal spaces before settling into a week filled with swimming, hiking, biking, beach time, games and evenings around the bonfire. Daily life at camp was part of the experience too. The girls helped plan menus, prepare meals for the group, cook over the fire and manage clean-up, building independence, teamwork and shared responsibility along the way.

Artist Ana Figo, led the year’s main artistic project through daily zine-making, visual arts and creative writing workshops. Drawing inspiration from their surroundings and their own experiences, participants explored photography, painting, printmaking, poetry and storytelling as ways to express their ideas and create work that reflected their voices.

The week was led by Isorine Marc, Ana Figo, Afnan Yakot and Karen Lam, with each bringing a different part of camp life into focus, from arts programming and outdoor activities to cooking, teamwork and group care. For some participants, the week also brought important firsts, including sleeping at an overnight camp, swimming in a lake and learning how to set up a tent.

LAINI Land 2025 was made possible through the generous support of RBC Foundation’s Emerging Artist Program supported Ana’s role. RBC Foundation amplifies Jamii’s mission to connect professional artists with youth in meaningful, community-based projects. We are also grateful to the private donors who believe in Jamii’s vision of building community through arts and culture.

2024 - 3rd Annual LAINI LAND: Photography and The Pact

Photography became the central artistic project for LAINI LAND in 2024.

Back at Farming Futures Co-op near Madoc, participants worked with photographer Nilaya Sabnis to learn photography, editing and curation. Over the course of the week, the group developed the theme and narrative for their own mini photography exhibition.

The resulting project, The Pact, explored friendship through images created and selected by the participants themselves.

Alongside the photography project, the group lived together on the farm, ate food from the garden, slept in communal tents, swam, explored the property and gathered for shared meals and conversations at the end of each day.

2023 - 2nd Annual LAINI LAND: Music, Art and Time on the Land

In 2023, LAINI LAND returned to Farming Futures Co-op with 15 participants.

The group spent several days without electronic devices, eating vegetables picked from the garden, swimming, making art, gathering around the fire and spending time close to the farm’s animals and surrounding land.

Musician Zaynab Wilson joined the camp as lead artist and facilitated music-based activities throughout the week. The experience was hosted in partnership with Becoming Praxis, whose co-founder and director, artist Ayelen Liberona, welcomed the group to the land.

The second year also reflected an important part of Jamii’s approach to LAINI: building long-term relationships with young people and creating experiences with participants Jamii continues to see and support as they grow.

2022: The First LAINI LAND

LAINI LAND began in 2022, when 12 young women from The Esplanade spent five days and four nights at Farming Futures Co-op, a 472-acre heritage farm in Hastings County, Ontario.

For many in the group, it was their first time camping. Participants slept in tents, explored the farm and forest, cooked and ate together, swam, shared stories around the fire and spent time with the animals and natural environment around them.

Artists and facilitators Ayelen Liberona, Kat Mahlon and Heather Tizya were part of the experience, alongside Jamii team members. Activities included yoga with Heather and an outdoor performance by Kat around the fire. The first year established many of the ideas that continue to shape LAINI LAND today: trying unfamiliar experiences, spending sustained time together and giving young women room to build confidence and make decisions as a group.