2008

December 25 - Every year the Incas Scout Group from Cochabamba, Bolivia celebrate Christmas in a very special way: they serve breakfast and give toys to the children in the marginal zones of the community and organise Scout games for them to play. This year, more than 700 children from the community of Bello Horizonte were able to enjoy these special gifts!

The first ever Scouts of the World Discovery in Ireland took place in October 2008, gathering 21 enthusiastic Venture Scouts and young leaders from across 11 Scout Counties and 4 Scout Provinces to the Scout Den & Museum of the 37th Cork (Togher) in Cork City.

Scouting Ireland's Venture Scout and International teams are carrying out this pilot to investigate how best to integrate the Scouts of the World Award programme into national programme. It also allows the assocation to put in place the necessary resources to facilitate young people from around the country in applying for the award.

The Scouts of the World Discovery is an adventure lasting several days, organised with a focus on environment, development or peace. This Discovery is part of the Scouts of the World Award scheme. The "Eclaireuses Eclaireurs de France" will set up three Scouts of the World Discoveries in 2009.

December 2008: Over 3 million pilgrims are now in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj, the pilgrimage every devout Muslim hopes to make at least once in a lifetime.

As in years past, more than 4,000 Scouts, from throughout the country are on hand to help with providing information, directions, helping lost children rejoin their parents, first-aid, etc. It is probably the single largest annual Scout service project in the world.

The Scouts volunteer their time for 15 days, and receive special training in first aid and communication skills.

The thank-you notes sent by pilgrims they have helped have one common theme: they were lost in a sea of literally millions of people, and then they saw a familiar sight – a young man in a Scout uniform, like they see at home, or like they were once themselves – and they knew they were safe.

During the first few months of 2008, fourteen local Scout Groups and Scout Centres from nine countries around the world were given the special task of testing the curriculum content and programme activities for the World Scout Environment Badge. These 550 Scouts from Algeria, Australia, Bolivia, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Palestinian Authority, South Africa and the United Kingdom gave valuable feedback that proved the environment is an important global issue and something that young people, wherever they are in the world, are concerned about and want to help make a difference.

The Scouts participated in a wide range of activities that included exploring their local environment, looking at the local air quality and water quality, analysing environmental issues in their country then engaging in debates and discussions, learning about natural disasters that could happen to their community, creating natural art pieces, tree planting, clean up activities, looking at their own carbon footprint and much more.

The first Scouts of the World Award exhibition in the Asia Pacific Region was held during the "Diamond Moot 2008", the 18th National Rover Moot of Thailand, Petchaburi, Thailand. 22-26 Oct 2008

‘Save the Earth, Serve the World’ – That’s the motto of the Thailand Rover Moot 2008.
To fit in the theme of the Moot and the buzz of the Scouts of the World Award (SWA) in the Asia Pacific Region (APR), a SWA exhibition was set up during the Moot. With the support of The National Scout Organization of Thailand (NSOT) in the Scouts of the World Award, The Singapore Scout Association (SSA) collaborated with The Rover Scout Association of Thailand (RSAT), Greenpeace and Kaengkrachan Riverside Scout Camp (KRSC) to set up the exhibition.

5 December - International Volunteer Day is an opportunity to thank the volunteers from around the world that support World Scouting through donating their time and talents in a whole variety of ways.

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers strive to help young people around the world with their Scouting programmes and activities on a daily basis. And on behalf of 28 million Scouts worldwide - each and every one of you is an asset to the Movement.

With the support of World Scouting, Australia Post has developed a special range of products celebrating 100 years of Scouting in Australia. Included in the range is a Baden-Powell stamp pack consisting of stamps from Australia, Portugal, Uruguay and Papua New Guinea, and a Scouts stamp and ingot set. Also included are a Centenary of Scouting in Australia stamp and coin cover and a Centenary of Scouting in Australia stamp pack.

Following its foundation the UK in 1907, news of Scouting reached Australia in early 1908. The movement developed during the second quarter of 1908, when patrols started to meet, and then formed into larger troops by the middle of the year. The popularity of Scouting in Australia was encouraged by Lord Baden-Powell’s visits in 1912, 1927, 1931 and by the first Australian Jamboree, held in Frankston, Victoria in 1934-35.

2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the face and response to AIDS has greatly changed. While many of these changes are positive, this anniversary offers us an opportunity to highlight how much more still needs to be done. the latest UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic indicates that the epidemic is not yet over in any part of the world.

Together with its partners, the World AIDS Campaign set this year’s theme for World AIDS Day as “Lead – Empower – Deliver”, building on last year’s theme of “Take the Lead”. Scouts around the world have been playing a key role in the fight against HIV/AIDS for a number of years, leading the way in their communities through peer education programmes, awareness campaigns and activities, aiming to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, which is also in line with Millennium Development Goal 6.

On 8-9 November 2008 more than 200 participants from the academic community, NGOs, Scouting and the public were given the opportunity to attend a unique scientific conference held in Athens and organised by the Soma Hellinon Proskopon (Scout Association of Greece) in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Secretariat-General for Youth and the Hellenic Open University.

The 30 presentations that were made dealt with a variety of current topics that have a direct reflection on formal, informal and non-formal educational processes and included skills development, the civil society, volunteerism, free time, diversity, the evolving needs of young people, age characteristics, environment and sustainability.