All 11-year-old Celeste Aranda wanted was for someone to accept a small token of friendship.

In fifth grade the Los Angeles resident wove friendship bracelets for six girls she hoped would be her friends. But all six girls returned the bracelets, and Celeste swore she would never make any more.

So when a counselor at "Turning Neighbors into Friends," a one-week summer camp organized by the Westside-based Global Children's Organization last month, asked Celeste to make her a bracelet during an art activity, the young girl burst into tears. After Celeste told her story, she agreed to make a bracelet for Noushin Bayat, a counselor. And following more requests for bracelets, Celeste said it was one of her favorite activities at the camp that brought 92 children, ages 7 to 11, from throughout the Los Angeles area together at Camp Coulter Pines in the San Gabriel Mountains.

"At home I barely made friends, but here you can make a whole bunch of friends and they respect you," she said. The Global Children's Organization was founded in 1993 by Malibu resident Judith Jenya. That same year Jenya conducted her first camp for children from war-torn Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo on the Badja Island in Croatia. Jenya also held camps in 1999 and 2000 for Catholic and Protestant youth in Donegal, Northern Ireland, where conflict is chronic and segregation the norm.

This summer, however, was the first time the organization held a camp for children from Los Angeles.

"We've been working in areas of war and violence and have always realized that war and violence exists in our own community and want to get back to our own," said Fred Tannenbaum, president of the Global Children's Organization.

The nonprofit organization, which is sponsored entirely through private donations--mostly Westside residents and a few corporate sponsors--selected children based on recommendations by community organizations including Barrios Unidos, Homies Unidos, Esperanza Housing Corp., Melrose Avenue School, International Rescue Committee, Program for Torture Victims, CORAL, Jewish Resettlement Agency and the I Have a Dream Foundation. All of the children were selected because they live in the midst of communal violence, either at home or in their neighborhood.

The only cost to the children for the camp, which ran from Aug. 20 to 27, was a $35 registration fee and some even received scholarships to cover the cost of the fee.

The camp allowed children to partake in all the usual delights of summer camps like swimming, canoeing, hiking, sports, arts and crafts, music and theater.

The campers were also taught skills that might help them when they return home. Daily community building sessions were held to help the children address their fears of violence and provide interactive communication tools to deal with possible conflicts by teaching peaceful conflict-resolution techniques illustrating trust, cooperation, respect, tolerance and listening so that the campers could learn how to appreciate ethnic and cultural differences.

"Many of the kids who come to our camps have experienced repeated aggression in their own neighborhoods," said Jenya, citing gang violence and other statistics. "Our goal is to give them a chance to enjoy being kids, while teaching them how to resolve conflict and prevent future violence."

Manuel Larnes, executive director of Santa Monica-based Barrios Unidos, led the entire camp in a 1 1/2 hour daily morning session on alternative conflict resolution, called Community Building Activities.

"Generally, I work with kids who are disenfranchised, which leads to gang activity and other involvement," Larnes said.

By the second day of the camp, Larnes had everyone call out their name and where they're from, including volunteers who participated in all of his exercises. He repeatedly encouraged everyone to speak up clearly, so others could hear, to build the campers' confidence.

"It's very exciting to see a kid who won't say his name on his first day shout his name by the third day," he said.

The campers participated in other group games meant to build respect and cooperation, like "The Human Knot," wherein small groups would form a circle and each child would place their hands in, one at a time, and grab whatever hand preceded theirs. Then they would try to unwind into a larger circle without loosing their grasp.

Another game was the "Macho Man" arm wrestling match. Partners faced each other and had to count how many times they and their partner's arm would hit the table. Whoever counted the most times would get a prize.

The light bulb went off in 11-year-old Wesley Tata's head when he understood that the way to win wasn't by competing with his partner, but by cooperating. So 104 arm slaps on the table later, he not only won a Frisbee and some toy cars, but he also accomplished one of the major goals of the camp, he learned the benefits of cooperation.

"Games around the world are pretty similar," Jenya said. "You get kids to listen to each other, be respectful, think of ways of cooperating, and get them to come up with nonviolent solutions."

Counselor Alex Sanchez, a former gang member and director of Homies Unidos, a Los Angeles and El Salvador-based organization that helps current or ex-gang members finish their education and get employment, said he knew that many of the children would be returning to whatever problems they faced at home and will eventually be forced to make choices about drugs and violence. Sanchez hopes that the camp will help them be better prepared to face those choices.

"They're young and may not be deciding yet, but the idea is to plant a seed so that later, when they're ready, they know there's alternatives," he said.

Sanchez made a big splash with the children when he "fell" in the lake. Afterward, a number of children came up to him and asked about his tattoos and the four gunshot wounds they saw while he was in his swimsuit. Sanchez's description of his past experiences helped them open up about the situations they come from and the dialogue gave him another opportunity to discuss the pitfalls of violence and gang behavior.

For the duration of the week, the children were divided by sex and age into nine cabins of about 10 children and three volunteer counselors, called "families."

Familial terms like, brother, sister and Dad, were used frequently, but loosely, and often in an intense air of bonding and support. Like in a family, sometimes the children just yearned for affection.

Bayat, who is also the staff administrator in the Global Children's Organization's West L.A. office, said that some of the girls in her cabin kept getting stomachaches.

"These girls just aren't getting enough love," she said. "Sometimes they need caressing for about a 1/2 hour and then they're OK."

Some campers, like Josefina Garcia, 11, of Santa Monica, tried to comfort her new friends.

"I comfort the other girls because I want them to be happy, for this to be really, really fun," she said. "This feels like home. I don't want to leave."

Meanwhile, other children found inspiration in the environment. Many said they saw woodland creatures, like woodpeckers, bears, raccoons and opossums for the first time at the camp.

Claudia Callins, 10, from San Bernardino, said she loved experiencing nature up close.

"I've never seen a good lake before," she said, adding that although she has seen a lake when her grandmother took her fishing, she liked this one more. "This lake is better because I can get in."

Jenya would like to start more camps around the world with community support and funding. They had plans to start a camp in Aqaba, Jordan, with Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli children, but now she believes the area is too volatile and that the camp could be a target for violence.

"Children are people's most precious possession," she said.

The Global Children's Organization has been asked to run camps in southern Florida, Philadelphia and Chiapas. And they plan to have more camp sessions in Croatia and Los Angeles next summer.

Brian Tuitt, a detective with the New York City Police Department, was a well-liked counselor at this summer's Los Angeles camp. He was participating on his own vacation time, as he did twice before at Jenya's camps in Croatia. Tuitt thinks the camp is a start to change.

"What's good is we have these kids at a young age," he said. "They like to follow, but want to know what it is to be a leader. They haven't settled yet, but are going all different ways and don't know what it is like. Education is the key, and what needs to be done are more programs need to be put in place in camp."

Tuitt also said that children need to know they have choices when they get older and don't have to just stay in their neighborhood.

"If they decide to stay in their communities, they need to know they can still make a difference," he said.