Category Archives: News

Regional Circular 22 2015: “European Youth Event 2016: Call for participants

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After the success of the first European Youth Event in 2014, the Parliament of the European Union will once again open its doors to 5000 young people from all over Europe at the European Youth Event 2016 in Strasbourg (FR) on 20-21 May 2016.

The event aims to engage young people in political debate and society, giving highlight to important key issues such as peace, democracy, unemployment, work and environment.

Please find more details on how to apply in the Call for Participants dispatched with Regional Circular 22 2015. The deadline is 16 December 2015!

– Regional Circular 22 2015: “European Youth Event 2016: Call for participants (English, French)

A Scouting Nederlands programme for the refugee camp

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Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (33): a story from the Scouting Regio ZON.

“A refugee camp with a capacity for 3000 people has been set up near Nijmegen. This site is called Heumensoord and is the responsibility of the Central Organisation for Refugees (COA) in the Netherlands. The COA also cooperates with a local volunteer organisation called STIP.

Heumensoord is in the centre of the Guiding/Scouting District of Region ZON, which has 39 guide/scout groups with approximately 1000 staff and 3300 members. As Heumensoord is located in our region, we wished to offer guide/scout programmes to the children in the camp. We estimated that the camp has about 430 children up to 12 years old and 100-200 between 13 and 18 years old.

Having first contacted the COA and STIP, our team had an initial meeting on October 19 2015, to work out plans for guide/scout programmes. We then contacted the Dutch Scouting Centre to inform them about our plans and request advice about the plans’ completeness, insurance issues, contact with the press, etc.

Everything then proceeded rapidly, with much work being done in only a few days, including (i) a logo and flyer (‘Who will help next Sunday?’), presented on Facebook and received 4000 responses within 2 days; (ii) communication groups for Facebook and WhatsApp; (iii) defining the programme and discussing it with the COA, particularly about the rules and the do’s and don’ts; and (iv) also having Syrian translators involved.

The first Guide/Scout meeting at Heumensoord took place on Sunday October 25th! There were 26 enthusiastic Scout leaders, including 2 who had just returned from the World Jamboree in Japan. We organised many typical and traditional Dutch games. There were reporters from the local newspapers, so we received a lot of publicity. It was all a great success and experience.

We were enthusiastic about this success and therefore decided to continue the programme every Sunday afternoon for the next 6 months. Subsequently, and very quickly, several great things happened: (i) a dedicated program team of 6 Scout leaders attends every week; (ii) there is much support from all members of our district: 20 staff leaders weekly ; (iii) we started fundraising, and a substantial budget was created within one week; and (iv) we made badges for the staff and for promotion (purchase your badge for € 10,- to support our programme at Heumensoord). In short, the programme is running well, with about 40-60 participants every week. We have already had several fantastic Sunday afternoons and are still going strong!

What’s the programme? What do we offer?

We have all types of games with the exception of computer games. All the children, young people and enthusiastic parents are welcome to attend.  At first we started with general games but gradually introducing more guiding/scouting games and structure. For example, we have included guiding/scouting skills such as the use of a compass, wind directions  and of course knots. The youngsters enjoy this very much so we plan to slowly increasing the skill levels each week. We also encourage the children to create their own games.

Our team and our programme will be present every Sunday in December. We think this is essential, since it is not appropriate to tell the refugees “Sorry, there’s no meeting next Sunday, because for us it is holiday time.”.

This is a wonderful programme to do. We are proud to be involved in it, proud to be scouts, and proud of all the volunteers who make themselves available for these children every week.”

If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity in your local community, let us know and we will share it, too: just complete this form!

Scouting Nederland will be hosting Roverway 2018!

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At their recent joint meeting in Athens, the Europe Committee WAGGGS and the European Scout Committee of WOSM considered two bids received from Member Organisations desiring to host Roverway 2018.  The Committees had taken an earlier decision to break the three-year rhythm of this event and organise the subsequent Roverway  in 2018 to avoid potential clashes with the 24th World Scout Jamboree and the 16th European Guide and Scout Conference, both planned for 2019, the year in which Roverway would normally have been scheduled.

We are pleased to inform you that Scouting Nederland will by hosting Roverway 2018!

Follow the event’s website and Facebook page to find out more as planning of this major regional event for the senior age sections begins.

How can we get more active in refugee support activities in our community?

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Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (32): a story from the Federació Catalana d’Escoltisme i Guiatge.

Earlier this month the Federació Catalana d’Escoltisme i Guiatge (FCEG) and its three members associations discussed how best they could support local Scout and Guide Groups desiring to engage in refugee support activities in their local communities.

A short document was published providing answers to questions like “How can we get active?”, ”What is WOSM’s and WAGGGS’ position?”, and “Who can we network with?”. The document also provides links to relevant pedagogical tool kits and lists useful sources for additional background information.

If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity in your local community, let us know and we will share it, too: just complete this form!

Re-imagining Futures: On our way towards active global citizenship – Prague, 19/11/2015

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Scouts and Guides Active Global Citizens, the EU funded project that gathers 11 scouts & guides and global education organizations from 7 European countries, are holding a unique motivational conference for sharing action ideas and exploring among scout leaders on global issues and the role they can play. The goal is to give a strong inspirational and motivational impulse to take informed actions, based on critical thinking in order to facilitate positive local and global changes.

The event is an opportunity to meet and create something with eight specialist speakers from all over the world (Brazil, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Ireland and Denmark). Speakers will inspire the participants in various ways for informed engagement in the European Year for Development 2015 and beyond – by life experience and example under the theme “what have I personally changed”, by presenting their projects for facing global/local challenges, by encouraging various perspectives and views on things we may perceive as given.

More information can be found at http://www.nazemi.cz/en/re-imagining-futures