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WE Connect replaces EUROPAK
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INFORMATION – From EUROPAK to WE Connect – the new Joint Regional Website (Regional Circular 21 2019)
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EUROPEAN JAMBOREE 2020 – Recruitment of International Service Staff (Joint Communication 05 2019)
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23rd EUROPEAN SCOUT CONFERENCE – Announcing two Crowdcasts in preparation of the Conference (Conference Circular 09)
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RECIRCULATION – FOR REVIEW: Draft Memorandum of Understanding (Joint Communication 04)
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Tag Archives: #Refugees
To help. Because we made a promise. On our Honour.
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (22): a story from the Galatsi Olympic Centre in Athens, Greece
With a number of friends from Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός (the Scouts of Greece, member of WOSM, the World Organization of the Scout Movement), Scout Leader Dimitris spent the weekend at the newly-opened Refugee Centre at the Galatsi Olympic Centre in Athens:
“As Scouts we have promised to help every person in every circumstance! So this is our story from this weekend in Galatsi:
Carrying hundreds of boxes, bags and sacks… Separating soaps from toys and blankets, clothes for children, women and men from canned food and medicines…. Sorting everything into piles and helping those in need to find the necessary supplies until they reach a new place they can call home!
Sometimes it reminds me of the Lord: “If I washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” And here are we, helping those caught in a difficult situation, not alone but among brothers and sisters. Thanks a lot to you Rika, Thoma, George, Helen, Myrto, Paraskeva, Teri, Sofia, Alex and all the other Scouts whose names I forget. We will continue our efforts, this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow and the following days.
To help. Because we made a promise. On our honour.”
So, how can you help? The answer is: we need your big smiles and strong hands, to give out food and drinks, to help in the distribution of clothes, shoes, toys, and to support all kinds of tasks at the Galatsi Refugee Centre: every day, from 7.30 in the morning to 22.00 at night. Our storage rooms are full and the generous donations from citizens continue to come in. This is an invitation not only to Scouts but also to the general public!
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!
How do I make a campfire bread? Come, I’ll show you!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (21): a story from Uedem, Germany
Uedem? Where is Uedem? Many refugees might have wondered where this town was situated on the map of Germany where destiny had decided that they would find their temporary new homes. We, too, had to check the map to discover that Uedem is located between Duisburg and Kleve on the river Rhine close to the Dutch border.
And the surprise was even greater when the refugees arrived in Uedem: a group of members of DPSG Uedem, the local Scout and Guide Group (a member of DPSG Niederrhein-Nord District of DPSG – Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg) awaited them waving colourful flags, holding up “Welcome” and “Willkommen” posters.
The Scouts and Guides – with the help of friends of the local school – had spent several days preparing their Welcome Party: they collected toys, games and jigsaws, stuffed animals and dolls, footballs, basket balls and other sports equipment! And they planned a series of activities for their “Willkommensfest” using many of the collected items with their guests, handing them over as presents at the end of the day. Others were busy in their kitchen and prepared pastry and other dishes to serve at the party.
Many of the newly arrived refugees attended the welcome party, happy spend an afternoon in friendly and happy atmosphere with their new neighbours. While children and young people happily enjoyed the games their parents and other adults were glad to settle down and relax for a few hours in good company, away from their tense and stressful life.
What started as a colourful afternoon of games and sports finally ended around a genuine campfire, where Scouts and Guides and their new friends enjoyed preparing (and later eating) their campfire bread on sticks cut from bushes only moments earlier.
(Source: rp-online, 9 Ocotber 2015)
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity in your local community, let us know and we will share it, too!
Okay. Let’s go to the park and play!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (20): a story from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands
“Okay. Let’s go to the park and play!” – that’s what Scouts from Scouting Brownsea ’66 in Rotterdam (members of Scouting Nederland) decided this Friday night after having been contacted by volunteers of the Rotterdam Red Cross who help looking after some 250 newly arrived refugees at the local refugee welcome centre opened at the Schuttersveld Sport Centre in Rotterdam.
So, yesterday, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of Scouts welcomed a large group of children and young people from the refugee welcome centre and spent the rest of the day playing games in the park and doing paperwork at the Scout Hut.
After some initial hesitation the children and young people quickly found their smiles again and thoroughly enjoyed this moment of fun. It was quite obvious that they were able – for some time at least – to forget the hardship of their long and tiresome journey that had brought them to Rotterdam.
Like any other group of children at an afternoon party in a park, they agreed to pose for a “family photo” with their new friends from the Scout Group. And to everybody’s surprise Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Lord Mayor of Rotterdam, joined them for this picture and then for another funny game!
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity in your local community, let us know and we will share it, too!
Is there anything unusual in this picture?
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (19): a story from the island of Kos, Greece
“Do you note any difference in this picture?
You should not really, because it is just another meeting of Scouts on a sunny Saturday afternoon playing a game.
But wait? The children wear no Scout shirts, no scarves?
Yes! That’s because this is a very special Scout meeting!
In fact, the picture was taken last weekend on the island of Kos in Greece, where members of Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός spent the weekend having joined other volunteers from local civil society organisations engaged in refugee support activities on the island.
The children in the picture are refugees from Syria and other countries who were very happy to escape hardship and boredom for a couple of hours and learn again what it means to laugh and have fun.”
Read more about the refugee support activities of the Scouts of Greece on Kos!
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity in your local community, let us know and we will share it, too!
Swapping pencil and textbook for plaster and paintbrush!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (18): a story from Eupen, Belgium:
“Early in September the FEDASIL (the Belgian federal agency for the welcome of asylum seekers) announced that a new local refugee welcome centre would be opened at the Elsenborn Army Camp in the German Community in eastern Belgium. And only a few days later the agency launched a call for volunteers to help prepare and run the centre.
When the Pioneer Scouts (the equivalent of Explorer or Venture Scouts in other association) of the St Martin Scout Group in Eupen (members of Les Scouts, one of the National Scout and Guide Associations in Belgium) heard about this, they quickly agreed that they would offer their skills and time: they volunteered to renovate one of the larger rooms at the refugee centre and to transform it into an indoor playground!
Over several days Scouts came together, swapped their Scout shirt for a workman’s outfit and became active: taking out old furniture, repairing and repainting walls, floor and ceiling, cleaning windows, and refitting the room with new carpets and furniture. In the coming days, a selection of games and toys collected from friends and relations will be added to those already available.
And soon everything will be ready to welcome children and young people and allow them to leave behind boredom: laughter and excitement will fill a previously abandoned room of the FEDASIL’s Elsenborn Refugee Centre!”
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
