The 96 year old Milos Miovic is the oldest person camped at the 21st World Scout Jamboree. He is from Slovenia and this is the second World Jamboree he is enjoying.

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Amongst the many new faces at the Sunrise ceremony, one man with a familiar name came out to join the celebrations. Lord Robert Baden Powell, grandson of our founder was there to see the lasting legacy of his namesake. (more…)

Hylands Park – July 27, 2007 – From today until the 8th of August 40’000 Scouts from over 160 countries from all across the world are gathering at Hylands Park near the city of Chelmsford, UK, 30 kilometers northeast of London. For the next 12 days they will participate in the 21st World Scout Jamboree and celebrate 100 years of Scouting. Tomorrow, the 28th of July, the official opening ceremony will take place, with a special visit from Prince William and the Duke of Kent from the UK Royal Family. (more…)

SINGAPORE: Don’t be surprised if you see a scout knocking on your door, offering to clean your room.
Starting on Saturday March 10, more than 10,000 scouts will scour the island for jobs, in return for cash donations. Job Week is an annual affair to raise funds for the Singapore Scout Association. The launch ceremony saw scout members performing a series of household chores at the Istana compound(it is an official residence of the President). And for the first time, girls in scouting will be joining their male counterparts in the job hunt.

President SR Nathan, who is also the Chief Scout of Singapore, signed the first donation card on 6th March.

To see a picture:

JOB WEEK 2007

10 MARCH - 16 MARCH
Scouts from all over Singapore will begin their Job Week which commences on 10 March and continue till 16 March. (more…)

Rover Scouts in Mexico are working to develop their community and promote cooperation with others to create a better world.

These Rovers belong to the ‘Red Ambiental Nayarit’ (Nayarit Environmental Network), a group of volunteers who work to support social development, protection of the environment and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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Scouts from the rover section of La Colombe group, in Musaga, Bujumbura in Burundi, decided to support one of their local inhabitants and her family as their Gift for Peace.
The Rovers got to know a blind lady living with her grandchildren in their town. The roof on her home was full of holes, there was no toilet for the family to use, and she was not receiving any support from the local administration. (more…)

Kenya, 22 February 2007 – Today in Nyeri, Kenya, several thousand Scouts gathered at the grave of Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, to light a flame which will cross Africa and Europe, as part of the Movement’s Centenary celebrations.

On July 31st 2007 (the eve of Scouting’s Sunrise) it will arrive on Brownsea Island (UK), which is the place where the very first Scout camp was held one hundred years ago. (more…)

Scouts around the world are being called upon to contribute to the planting of 1 billion trees as part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 1 Billion Trees Campaign!

Aimed at promoting the many benefits of local tree planting efforts around the world, Scouts are in a prime position to register our current tree planting efforts or take this opportunity to establish a tree planting project in your local community.

Planting trees can have many positive impacts on our environment including providing food and habitat for wildlife, cleaning the air, reducing soil erosion, helping to purify water, storing carbon and helping to reduce global warming and improving the general appearance of the landscape.

 It is simple to register tree planting pledges on the UNEP 1 Billion Trees Campaign website and Scouts are encouraged to make their pledges for 2007, whether they are large national projects or smaller local tree planting efforts, they all are important and count towards the aim of 1 billion trees!

Please include the word ‘Scouts’ in your pledge, as the total number of trees planted by Scouts around the world can be tallied at the end of 2007. For more information see:

www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign

After long time I went through the website www.scout.org, world scout’s official website where I read the latest news on "Red Card to Child Labour". Soon after, I glanced on the report of  9^th World Scout Youth Forum was held at Hammament, Tunisia from 29 August to 1 September 2005. It was the fourth forum linked to the World Scout Conference. A long report, I guess its beyond my capacity to understand what World Scout Organization is going to do to achieve Millennium Development Goals(MDGs). However, I believe the following part would fruitful for all us.

The World Scout Youth Forum offered young people the opportunity to discuss and express their views on subjects of interest to them, in their global, national and local realities. They prepared recommendations for the World Scout Committee.
The main topics dicussed on the forum were:
- Challenges for young global citizens: Global issues and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals; what can we do as Scouts?
- Challenges in young peoples’ lives: Discussing the main challenges that young people meet in their personal lives today in the various parts of the world, and what support they need to overcome difficulties
- Challenges in Scouting: Items from the agenda of the World Scout Conference; The Strategic Priorities; Development of Youth Involvement in WOSM.
 
Challenges for young global citizens and Millennium Development Campaign

Recognizing the importance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and various memoranda of understanding between WOSM and the UN System, one of the sessions of the World Scout Youth Forum focused on the synergy between the MDGs and our capacity in Scouting to play a significant part in realising those goals.
 
What are Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?
The eight millennium Development Goals range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education-all by the target date of 2015. a blueprint agreed by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions- a set of simple but powerful objectives that every man and woman in the street, from New York to Nairobi  to New Delhi, can easily support and understand. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest(United Nations Secretary-General,Kofi A. Annan).

The goals are eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower woman, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development. Mr Amil Hussain, Global Youth Co-coordinator of the United Nations Millennium Campaign explained on details on MDGS and motivated the Forum participants to take an active role in ensuring that we don’t want tosee another generation die as a result of poverty.
 
With strong guidance from the expert members of staff from UNICEF, Tunisia the participants came up with various recommendations on each goals.
 
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
 
· Halve, between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.
· Halve, between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
 
The group considered actions that are already being undertaken in Scouting to reduce poverty, hunger and their root causes and developed ideas for new approaches. The group identified partnerships between NSOs in developed and developing countries and the necessity of young people need to be called to action and take part in the decision making processes, in addition, a scout aid organization channeling money from developed countries to scout projects in developing countries was noted.
 
2. Achieve universal primary education
· Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
 
Acknowledging that more than 113 million children are denied access to primary education and that more than 150 million people have never completed it, the working group explored what steps Scouting could practically take at local and national level to develop universal primary education and strategies to ensure that communities understand the benefit that it has. To achieve universal primary education the group suggested the project based ideas like a book, computer and educational software donation campaign, “Tree Schools”-setting up basic education facilities in rural areas with the help from volunteers and create child friendly school environment was put.
 
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
· Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015.
 
This working group recognized that the empowerment of women can be related to all of the MDGs, discussed positive discrimination, stereotypical roles of both sexes, the interrelationship between gender equality and poverty, under representation of women in political processes. Further, the working group also appreciated that young men have a responsibility to assist in developing a culture of gender equality. The ideas like building an international gender equality discussion network, appointing in charge in NSOs to focus on genders equality, co-operate with WAGGGS and other partners in the development of training materials for us in NSOs were idenidentified.
 
4. Reduce child mortality
· Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
 
5. Improve maternal health
· Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
 
Infant mortality and maternal health constitute serious problems in many developing countries. Every year 11 million children die before the age of five. In Africa there are more than 1000 maternal deaths per 100,000 births; a total of 600,000 deaths per year. The working group identified a number of issues that need to be addressed, including immunization, sanitation, sex-education and malnutrition and awareness programmes for reducing child mortality and improving maternal health.
 
6. HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
· Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
· Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
 
Acknowledging that every day 6000 young people become infected with HIV, and that AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined kill over 6 million people each year, the working group discussed projects undertaken by Scouts that address these problems.
The formation of Mobile Information Center (MIC) to bridge the information gap between urban and rural areas, where access to accurate media can vary enormously, Scouts could run a mobile information center, perhaps with internet access capability as well as a library of freely distributable printed matters can make a remarkable difference in achieving MDGs. Similarly, Scouting should involve more in the World AIDS Day particularly orgnising youth programmes where scout could have the opportunity to use the Scout method to get things done. NSOs can create scholarships to help young women and men considering alternatives from prostitution.
 
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
·  Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
· Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
· By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
 
Forests are disappearing at unprecedented rates globally, over 2.4 billion people lack access to proper sanitation facilities and one billion lack access to drinkable water, and recognising the important role young people can play in attaining environmental sustainability, the group went on to develop a number of practical ideas.
Two of the project based ideas that the  group come up with were the involvement of young people in conservation projects and promote environmental education, through Scouting, and Increase awareness of the memorandum WOSM has signed with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to promote education to sustainable development.
 
8. Develop a global partnership for development
· Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and nondiscriminatory.
Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally.
 
Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota -free access for their exports, enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries, cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction. Address the special needs of landlocked and Small Island developing states. Deal comprehensively with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.
 
In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth and in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries; furthermore, in cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies—especially information and communications technologies.
 
Goal number 8 of the millennium development goals is mainly intended for the consideration of developed countries, recognizing that none of the goals can be achieved without the assistance and resources of these countries. The group discussed how to develop an even playing field for countries in the area of trade, youth employment, information and communications technology and global partnerships.
 
9. Scouts of the World Programme

To support the implementation above all 8 MDGs participants suggested to promote the sharing of other’s experience with Scouts of the World – so NSOs can learn from each other, to encourage NSOs to implement the programme through the regional offices and in direct contact with the NSOs and to provide relevant resources to NSOs to help them implement the programme.

 (In this issue I have summarized on Challenges for young global citizens: Global issues and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals; what can we do as Scouts?)

Residents of the Indonesian City of Yogyakarta on the island of Java were jarred awake early in the morning on Saturday, May 27, 2006, by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake.

Officials at Indonesia’s social affairs ministry say that more than 4,900 people were known to have died, while other reports put the death toll at more than 5,100.

As an immediate response to the disaster, the Scouts Care Task Force of the Gerakan Pramuka National Headquarters, sent five scout leaders to Yogyakarta, one of the areas most affected by the earthquake. The Chairman of Gerakan Pramuka, Prof Azrul Azwar, the Vice Chairman, Scouts Care Task Force Chairman, Parni Hadi, and the Secretary General of Gerakan Pramuka, Joedyaningsih, give full support to the five scout leaders. In addition, the Gerakan Pramuka NHQ has sent an ambulance with a medical doctor who is also a scout leader.

The five scout leaders will coordinate with the Scouts Care Task Force in Yogyakarta Provincial Scout HQ. The task force in Yogyakarta was initially formed to anticipate the eruption of Mount Merapi, near Yogyakarta. For the last three weeks, there have been several small eruptions prompting the evacuation of people living near the volcano. The Gerakan Pramuka Task Force helped with the evacuation process but is now on hand to help the victims of the earthquake.

Around Indonesia, Scouts have joined the relief effort by collecting money and materials to help the survivors. More than 200,000 people have been rendered homeless in the aftermath of the devastation and in the district of Bantul, 70 to 80 per cent of houses have completely collapsed, as have various large buildings, including the public hospital.

National Training Commissioners (NTC) gathered at the 88-acre and still expanding national training center of Bangladesh Scouts in Mouchak last April. Traditionally, training commissioners gather every three years at Regional Scout Conferences, which is mostly a fellowship and social event. This time, it was the first technical gathering of training commissioners with an agenda highly relevant to training development and adult resources management. Fifteen commissioners represented their countries, i.e. Australia, Bhutan, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, Hong Kong, Maldives, India and Bangladesh.

The gathering was seen as fruitful where the role and status of commissioners was redefined and clarifications were made on the interrelationship of training and adult resources. Another focus was on the concept and application of action-centered leadership.

 Participants recommended, among others, the use of action-centered leadership model and for NSOs to develop performance appraisal for members of their training team.  They look forward to having a NTC gathering every two years and encourage neighboring NSOs to conduct joint training courses for Leader Trainers and Assistant Leader Trainers.

Results are out for the winners of the 2006 regional photo contest.  Out of 147 photo entries, 15 finalists were pre-selected by a pool of professional photographers in Manila. For the final selection, Mr Takeyoshi Tanuma, President of Japan Photographers Association, headed the international panel of judges who chose the best six:
• Gold Prize by Ki Chul Ha of Korea Scout Association for “Happy Smile”
• Silver Prize by Hashim Ahmed of Bangladesh Scouts for “Measuring Blood Pressure”
•  Silver Prize by Edwin K.S.Leung of the Scout Association of Hong Kong for “Calling VR2XHG”.
• Bronze Prize by Frederick E. Bonifacio of Boy Scouts of thePhilippines for “Learning While Having Fun”
•  Bronze Prize by Frederick E. Bonifacio of Boy Scouts of the Philippines for “Helping Knows No Boundaries”
•  Bronze Prize by Claire Louise Davill of Scouts Australia for “Easy Ride”

 Prizes to be awarded at the APR Scout leaders Summit on 21 May in Laguna, Philippines. Congratulations to the winners.

In partnership with the United Nations, World Scouting contribute to the Global Campaign on the Millennium Development Goals by launching the “Youth of the World Campaign”. The purpose of this youth campaign is to mobilise and sensitise the youth on issues regarding development, and to invite young people to act, debate and reflect in a community.

Take part in the Youth of the World Campaign

You are between 15 to 26 years old, you are concerned by the World issues: sustainable development, environment, peace. You agree that in the third millennium, it is a scandal that 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 per day, that 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, that 28,000 children die from poverty-related causes everyday. You have heard about the Millennium Development Goals (http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/) and you know that we are the first generation that has the means to change this situation. The world is currently spending 1 trillion dollars on defence annually, this is much more than the estimated annual cost of 40-70 billion dollars required to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Maybe you have the feeling that you are powerless and that you cannot change anything. This is wrong! You can do something. Thousands and thousands of young people all over the world are engaged in many projects to improve the conditions of life of their communities and to advocate for changes. All together we can join our efforts and make a difference.

Just form a team with some of your friends and contact us. We will help you to develop a project, which can take one of the two following forms:

1. Develop a campaign within your school, within your community, and raise awareness about the MDGs.
2. Or, develop a specific project to contribute to solve a problem related to the MDGs.

We can help you to get the information and the skills required to develop your project. If it is considered as significant, you will get the Youth of the World badge and be registered for the Youth for development Prize.

Don’t wait! Take part in the Youth of the World Campaign! Set up your team and change the world!

Aims of the Campaign

• Mobilise young people, from 15 to 26 years old, on the Millennium Development Goals and encourage them to develop projects responding to the needs of their community.
• Develop educational resources enabling young people to acquire motivation, knowledge and skills regarding the Millennium development Goals and ability to develop projects.
• Support young people to use media or to create alternative solutions to inform, sensitize, mobilise other young people on a larger audience on the Millennium Development Goals and issues regarding sustainable development and peace.

Components

1. Scouts of the World Programme
2. Youth for Development Prize

Principles

• Promote and support youth led projects
• Create information for young people by young people
• Focus on local communities and needs of young people
• Invest in youth
• Reaching out to young people with the right media

The Youth of the World Campaign is devised and organised by the
World Organization of the Scout Movement. © Copyright June 2004.

Youth involvement in the Asia-Pacific Scout Region December, Fifty-seven participants from 17 countries attended the APR Youth Forum at the Games Village in Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. Six Youth Advisers were elected and Edward Cook (New Zealand) was appointed as the Chairman of the Youth Group and will attend the Regional Committee meetings. Each of the other young people will attend the sub-committee meetings. The Youth Advisers are: Edward Cook, Chairman (NZ), Eko Andrianto (Indonesia), Netsai Khaimarn (Thailand), In Sun Ryu (Korea), Maiya Twayanabasu (Nepal), Aaron Wardle (Australia).

Celebrate the centenary of Scouting——Climb Everest

Gulf Air is supporting the Scout Association in their dream to climb Everest in 2007 to celebrate the centenary of Scouting. Sir Edmund Hillary is patron of the Scout Association expedition to Everest in 2007. In preparation for this attempt, a Scout Association group as just Peparted for Nepal with Gulf Air to test their systems and operational capabilities before the big Everest attempt in two year time. ?

Facing their toughest challenge yet, the Scout Association group is off to the Himalayas to climb Mount Cho Oyu, the 8th highest mountain in the world standing at 8201 meters (26,906 feet). The objective of the expedition is to train at altitude to prepare the group for the Everest climb in 2007.

Clive Wratten, UK General Manager for Gulf Air, said: The Scout Association expedition to the Himalayas this year and the Everest attempt in 2007 are both extremely exciting projects. Gulf Air is delighted to be offering support to the group and we will be following their progress closely?

Expedition Leader Nathan Figg said: The reality of the enormous task ahead is starting to hit home. We’ve trained hard for this climb and it will be a real test of how the team operates above 7000 metres?

The group has been in training for the Everest attempt for five years; a tough training schedule which has seen them enduring the Scottish Highlands during winter, the steep climbs of the Swiss Alps and climbing the highest mountain in North America, Mt McKinley in Alaska, acknowledged to be the coldest mountain in the world.