Banca Etica is the first ethical financial institution in Italy. It was created in 1999, based on MAGs, (self-managed mutual associations) and the result of collaboration between 21 non-profit organisations that merged to raise the funds needed to establish a truly popular bank.

Scoutisme Français (the French Scout organisation) is officially recognised by the nation’s Ministry of Youth and Sports. Its adult leader training courses (the equivalent of the Wood Badge) are officially recognised by the State.

What sort of violence are children subjected to throughout the world? How does violence affect children? What can be done to prevent violence? All these questions will be addressed by the report for the United Nations study on violence against children that will be published in October 2006, and to which WOSM contributed.

As Edi Darmadi, a 19-year old engineering student and a member of his university’s Rover Scout group, was watching the consequences of the earthquake and the tsunami on television with horror, he knew that he had to do something. He put on his uniform, climbed on his motorcycle and headed straight to the local Scout office.

A recent survey showed that, in Brazil, 30 million people have lost their teeth because they were too poor to maintain good oral hygiene. In light of this, the Brazilian Scouts have launched a national campaign to improve basic dental care.

The Solomon Islands have experienced ethnic tension and civil war over the past few years, and this has caused a lot of suffering. A team of Australian Scouts helped with renovating a school, the only one in the country to accept students with hearing difficulties.

Between 2000 and 2005, a group of French and Senegalese Scouts developed a project to help the village of Tobor, Senegal to renovate the old buildings of the town’s university.

In 1986, Herman Hui, the previous Chairman of the World Scout Committee, had the idea of providing young prisoners in Hong Kong with Scout uniforms, “to help them change their values and become citizens in their own right".

Bahadurpur, in Bangladesh, is a good example of a village in which senior Scouts have achieved social and economic changes. They have done a lot for the community: built schools and roads, and reduced health hazards. So it is not surprising that the local population has given it a new name as a sign of gratitude: Rover Poly, which means the “senior Scouts village”.

As part of a cooperation project, five senior French Scouts returned to Kpalimé, Togo, in 2005 to analyse and learn about how free trade was working.