Frederik Röder, Berlin, Germany
I attended my first Language of Liberty Camp in Slovakia in 2007, freshly out of high school. I met many interesting and great people; some of them became very close friends and I am still in touch with them. These camps are a great combination of English practice and introductory classes into classical liberalism and entrepreneurship. I would like to thank past and previous LLI sponsors, organizers, and teachers for giving me the opportunity to attend these camps. I definitely benefited from these
immensely.
– Fred was a founder and board member of ESFL, and (I think) remains quite active, at least as an informal mentor, and probably fund-raiser
– Fred has started at least one small business, a health-care consulting firm, in which capacity he travels frequently internationally for speaking and consulting engagements
Ilia Meshvildishvili, Tbilisi, Georgia Republic
Organizing and attending a LLI camp helped me to know more about international organizations and their main activities and goals, which helped me to connect with the international student movement “Students for Liberty” and I founded my own organization in my country Georgian Students for Liberty. LLI gave me a great opportunity to dig deep down in the liberty movement. Now I have a non-political organization which is attractive for other right-wing political parties and in the long-term it seems to be an active opinion-maker in local political debates.
For my personal motivation, organizing our first Georgia Liberty Camp was a life-changing event. LLI always helped me to meet other NGO representatives and opened a door to a long and interesting adventure. As a result, Georgian Students for Liberty won the award of best team of European Students for Liberty in 2016. We then organized Tbilisi Regional Conference 2017 where we hosted over 600 students and spread the ideas of liberty.
LLI changed my life!
– the GE camp Ilia organized in 2012 drew 80 students, and focused on debate practice
– he and his colleagues were all students at Free University of Georgia, founded by Khakha Bendukidze, with whom they were all friends
– he has experimented with various small businesses, including grape growing / processing
Jan Škapa, Brno, Czech Republic
I attended the Liberty Camp in Slovakia in 2012, and it was my first pro-liberty event ever (I had listened to podcasts, had read online articles…, but had never talked about these ideas with people in real life). It was really a life-changing moment for me as I met some people who became important friends.
I then went on to visit more events like that, and I got involved with many initiatives. I found out about Students For Liberty, decided to become active. and started a branch of SFL in CZ in early 2013 with groups on campuses in Brno, Ostrava and Prague. They still have many active members, after so many years of existence.
I continue working in the pro-liberty sector, including Students For Liberty, focusing more on their technical goals (I am now the global IT Director).
I am to this day very happy that the first liberty event I ever attended was Liberty Camp, and I have very fond memories of the people and atmosphere there. Had I had a bad experience, I would probably have never attended more events and never ended up where I am right now. The Slovakian Liberty Camp was the entry point for me in terms of actually getting to know the people in the movement.
Ratko Nikolić, Belgrade, Serbia
Since attending the Liberty Camp in Slovakia, I went on to become the regional director for ex-Yugoslavia at ESFL, organized a couple of regional conferences (the one in Belgrade in 2014 attracted more than 280 people from all around Europe), helped in the creation of several ESFL chapters throughout the region, co-authored a public policy on marijuana legalization in Serbia, but perhaps most importantly I founded the Center for Anti-Authoritarian Studies, a Serbian non-profit dedicated to fighting media censorship and empowering young journalists. Right now, CAAS has more than 50 alumni from Serbia, some of whom now work for the leading investigative journalist organizations in the country, notably CINS and KRIK, and have coauthored significant investigative pieces and publishing a weekly blog where our alumni and partners give commentary on relevant socioeconomic issues in the country.
The Liberty Camp I attended in Slovakia was both educating and inspiring for my further work, which led me to Bitcoin, a shooting range in the Mojave desert, and mostly inspiration from contact with other liberty-loving students and their projects.
– another star in the ESFL expansion, with other camp alumni such as Aleksandr Kokotović, Todor Papic, and Milica Kostic
Mugabi John Socrates, Kampala, Uganda
The opportunity to participate in Liberty Camp turned out to be a great engine for me to become a champion of ideas of a free society. I founded a local chapter of Students for Liberty and another libertarian think tank called Action for Liberty and Economic Development (ALED). Through these organisations I got the opportunity to speak to thousands of students and youth across Uganda and East Africa about free speech, individual liberty, limited government, rule of law and property rights.
The camp was my opportunity to discover the best meaning of life and my potential which comes with freedom. Amidst the chains of big government, my mind enjoys the breeze of liberty through believing in who I am and what brings my happiness as long as I don’t step on others. This philosophy of liberty has encouraged me to inspire young activists, students, youth and leaders to spread and also stand in defence of a free society. The camp also motivated me to read books like “The Road to Serfdom”, “The Law”, and the works of Ayn Rand and Von Mises. My intellectual life has been greatly impacted by this great libertarian literature. I am proudly liberated. The camps have inspired me to understand that I am free when the rest are also free.
– Mugabe previously organized seminars in entrepreneurship and political philosophy
– He organized our Liberty Camps in Uganda in 2017- 2018
Milica Kostic, Belgrade, Serbia
Liberty Camp is a fantastic opportunity to discuss the ideas of liberty but also practice your English. With participants from all around the world and amazing speakers, you get to spend a week discussing the greatest libertarian thinkers and their ideas. I highly recommend this program to young students interested in learning more about liberty and meeting other like-minded students. Liberty Camp was my first international libertarian event and I’m very grateful to the organizers for all the contacts that I made there.
– Executive Board, European Students For Liberty
– Communications Manager, Libertarijanski Klub (LIBEK)