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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts : A platform to learn life skills If you are a girl guide, you must already be knowing that it helps you to gain self-development and growth. There are over 1.5 million girl guides and girl scouts around the world. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) is the umbrella organisation for all national girl guide and girl Scout organisations in the world. It comprises 144 member organisations, which are organised into five regions - Africa, Arabia, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
Through its member organisations, WAGGGS provides a high quality non-formal educational programme that provides dynamic, flexible and values-based training in life skills, leadership and decision-making. WAGGGS offers projects and programmes at an international level that enable Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to be responsible world citizens through teamwork, service and action in the community. There are approximately ten million individual members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. As such, the organisation provides a unique platform for discussion, debate and decision making about issues that affect girls and young women. Through WAGGGS, young women have the opportunity to meet with their peers around the world, and to participate in exciting international projects with major international UN and Non-Governmental Organisation partners. WAGGGS promotes cultural awareness, international peace, understanding and appreciation. Its projects address issues of concern affecting today's girls and young women, such as HIV and AIDS, adolescent pregnancy, the rights of children and young people and adolescent health. By focusing on girls and young women, WAGGGS ensures that it provides its members with appropriate programmes and training, to develop and learn life skills, within a supportive environment, to prepare them for leadership and equal partnership. The World Board is responsible for the governance of WAGGGS. The Board consists of twelve elected members, who are nominated by member organisations and elected at the World Conference. The Constitution and By-Laws of WAGGGS give the World Board the ability to appoint committees and ad- hoc groups to assist it in its work in achieving the mission of WAGGGS. The five regions elect their own committees, and these committees are represented on the World Board by their chairmen, who have the ability to vote. The Regional Committees have a close involvement with the work of their Regions, and arrange their own Regional Conferences, which are held in the year prior to the World Conference. The Founder of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide/Girl Scout Movements was Robert Baden-Powell. The Boy Scout Movement was officially founded in 1908. In 1909, a Boy Scout rally was held at Crystal Palace in London, and Baden-Powell was taken aback when a number of girls attended, saying that they considered themselves to be Girl Scouts. He decided that if they wanted to join in, they should have their own name and movement, and a programme suited to their needs. The result was 'The Scheme for Girl Guides' which appeared in the November 1909 issue of the Boy Scout Headquarters' Gazette. In 1910, the Guide Movement was formally founded, with the establishment of the Girl Guides Association (United Kingdom). Baden-Powell felt that the Movement for girls should be run by women, so in 1910 he asked his elder sister Agnes to undertake the work of adapting his book Scouting for Boys, for use with girls. That year the Guide Movement was formally founded, with the establishment of the Girl Guides Association (United Kingdom). In 1917, Baden - Powell's wife, Olave Soames began to organise the Girl Guide Movement in Sussex, United Kingdom, having been appointed UK Chief Commissioner the previous year. The first guide groups adopted a diversity of uniforms, symbolism, badges, laws and names, but each was founded and unified by the same ideal and spirit laid down by the Founder. In each case, the development of the Guide Movement resulted from the needs, wishes and initiatives of the girls and young women themselves. The rapid growth of the movement was due to the efforts of many enthusiastic, resourceful and forward-looking women who saw the Movement as a wonderful opportunity for the education of girls. Juliette Low founded Girl Scouting in the United States of America in 1912, her vision of worldwide Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting making a powerful contribution to its development. In the United States of America, the term 'Guide' was unacceptable, as it already had a widely-accepted application to Indian hunters. The first groups were therefore called Girl Scouts, and several other countries adopted the same name. In 1919 Olave Baden-Powell formed the International Council which was an advisory body, made up of women who acted as official correspondents with any country in which they were particularly interested. The first International Conference was held in England in 1920. It was a historic occasion, which gave representatives of the Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting world the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and experiences. Today, the Movement continues to thrive and grow. Nearly ten million girls and young women are members, in 144 Member Organisations worldwide, with at least 33 more Working Towards Membership. **** World Conference is on... The 32nd World Conference of the WAGGGS will be held from June 18-25 in Amman, Jordan. Representatives from all Member Organisations are taking part, together with representatives from some of the countries working towards membership. The World Conference takes place once every three years.The Conference takes place in a different area of the world each time, rotating around the Regions. The World Conference is the policy-making body of WAGGGS. It determines the policy and standards of Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting throughout the world, and approves National Organisations as Associate and Full Members of WAGGGS. It also elects the World Board, which acts on behalf of the Conference between meetings. Member Organisations, World Board and Committee members, WAGGGS Representatives at the UN, Partner Organisations, Honorary Associates, and friends are all invited to attend. Over 400 people usually attend the World Conference, many of whom are young women. |
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| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
WAGGGS is the largest voluntary organisation for girls and young women
in the world, and one of the world's seven largest international youth
organisations. Its mission is to enable girls and young women to develop
their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world. 
