Guides and Scouts stand up against poverty and social exclusion

The Europe Region WAGGGS and WOSM – European Region celebrated Thinking Day and Founder’s Day 2010 by organizing a conference in the European Parliament, on the theme of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, launched by the European Commission in January. The aim of the conference was to present projects and best practices to show the ways in which Guides and Scouts are fighting poverty and reaching out to marginalized and disadvantaged young people.

The conference was opened by the MEPs Marian Harkin and Carlos Coelho, who highlighted the contribution of the Guide and Scout Movements to the efforts to reduce poverty and social exclusion among young people. To demonstrate this in practice three representatives of WAGGGS and WOSM took the floor to present successful projects from Europe and Africa.

The first two presentations were related to combating poverty in Africa: Alphonsine Kabagabo, the Africa Regional Director for WAGGGS presented the project of the Kenya Girl Guide Association ‘Learn and Earn’, which trains girls from the street in life and vocational skills in order to improve their opportunities to find a job and become financially independent.

Pauline Kibugi from the Africa Region of WOSM, who is the coordinator of the project ‘Food for Life’ explained how scouts in Burundi, Kenya and Uganda are being trained to be able to raise their own crops and by that means they help to increase food security and food sovereignty.

The final presentation was made by Dáša Cingálková from Scouting Slovakia, who demonstrated how the scouts and guides in Slovakia try to fight social exclusion of Roma people in their country, to eradicate prejudice and to integrate Roma children into society.

These projects showed the vital contribution that  Guiding  and Scouting makes to improving the lives of young people and building a better world.  How are Guides and Scouts fighting poverty and social exclusion in your country – use the comments box below to share information about your projects.