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WE Connect replaces EUROPAK
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INFORMATION – From EUROPAK to WE Connect – the new Joint Regional Website (Regional Circular 21 2019)
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EUROPEAN JAMBOREE 2020 – Recruitment of International Service Staff (Joint Communication 05 2019)
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23rd EUROPEAN SCOUT CONFERENCE – Announcing two Crowdcasts in preparation of the Conference (Conference Circular 09)
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RECIRCULATION – FOR REVIEW: Draft Memorandum of Understanding (Joint Communication 04)
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Monthly Archives: October 2015
Swapping pencil and textbook for plaster and paintbrush!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (18): a story from Eupen, Belgium:
“Early in September the FEDASIL (the Belgian federal agency for the welcome of asylum seekers) announced that a new local refugee welcome centre would be opened at the Elsenborn Army Camp in the German Community in eastern Belgium. And only a few days later the agency launched a call for volunteers to help prepare and run the centre.
When the Pioneer Scouts (the equivalent of Explorer or Venture Scouts in other association) of the St Martin Scout Group in Eupen (members of Les Scouts, one of the National Scout and Guide Associations in Belgium) heard about this, they quickly agreed that they would offer their skills and time: they volunteered to renovate one of the larger rooms at the refugee centre and to transform it into an indoor playground!
Over several days Scouts came together, swapped their Scout shirt for a workman’s outfit and became active: taking out old furniture, repairing and repainting walls, floor and ceiling, cleaning windows, and refitting the room with new carpets and furniture. In the coming days, a selection of games and toys collected from friends and relations will be added to those already available.
And soon everything will be ready to welcome children and young people and allow them to leave behind boredom: laughter and excitement will fill a previously abandoned room of the FEDASIL’s Elsenborn Refugee Centre!”
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
Scouts cleaning shores of Lesbos: broken rubber dinghies, inflatable tires and life vests of all shapes and sizes
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (17): a story from the island of Lesbos, Greece:
“This weekend, some 40 Scouts from Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός were on their second mission to the island of Lesbos where they once again joined local Scouts and volunteers from other civil society organisations engaged in refugee support activities.
A group of Scouts spent the two days on the beaches and collected waste and items no longer needed and left behind by refugees arriving on the island, like broken rubber dinghies, inflatable tires or life vests of all shapes and sizes.
At the same time, several dozen of children and young people joined Scouts in Mytilini, the main port of Lesbos and its capital city, for two days of fun and games: a welcome opportunity for the refugees to escape their hardship and boredom for a couple of hours: anyone passing the village square would have seen a group of happy children laughing and spending a jolly good time. And the smile on parents’ faces was as rewarding to the Scouts as the signs of gratitude expressed by the children.”
This activity was made possible thanks to support received from the World Scout Foundation.
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
Ahmed, here is your new scarf: may it remind you of the one you left back home!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (16): a story from the island of Kos, Greece:
“Yesterday, two groups of Scouts from Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός left for the islands of #Λέσβος and #Κως where they spend the weekend and joined volunteers from other civil society organisations engaged in refugee support activities.
For a couple of hours, children, young people and their families will be able to leave behind their hardship and boredom and the children can do what other children would do on a sunny afternoon: have fund and play games!
One of them boys who joined the activities in Kos is Ahmed. He is from Syria, where he and his family had to leave everything behind when they fled the atrocities of war. No time to pack the scarf, though. Because Ahmed is a Scout and was a member of the local group of the Scouts of Syria back home in his village in Syria.
All children went back to the refugee centre tired but with smiles and laughter. They will certainly be back for another day of games and fun activities tomorrow with the Scouts of Greece. And Ahmed will proudly wear his new scarf, which he received from his Greek friends!”
This activity is made possible thanks to support received from the World Scout Foundation.
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
Mutual refugee support in Eidomeni (GR): we provide the tents, you care for the patients
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (15): a story from Eidomeni, Greece:
As part of the many refugee support activities in local communities across Greece, members of Πρόσκοποι του Κιλκίς (the local Scout Group in Kilkis, a member of Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός in the north of the country) provided large tents to the medical support team of Médecins du Monde Greece, in Eidomeni, a train station at the border to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Some of those tents are now used by the refugee camp medical station while others provide temporary accommodation for refugees before they continue their journey.
In addition to this material support, many Scouts from Πρόσκοποι Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας (including Scouts from Thessaloniki and other Groups in the local Scout Region of the Scouts of Greece) regularly offer their time, skills and experience to support the refugee centre in Idomeni.”
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
“will/kommen/an/kommen” – because we are engaged in our local community!
Scouts and Guides contributing to refugee support activities in their local communities in Europe (14): a story from Styria, Austria:
„Like a number of other regional Scout and Guide Associations in Austria and confronted with the realities of the situation faced by refugees arriving in their country, members of the regional board of Steirische Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen (the Scouts and Guides of Styria, a member of Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs (PPÖ) thought how best Scouts and Guides in Styria could offer their skills, time and material to refugee support activities in their local communities.
While a number of Scouts and Guides quickly joined other volunteers from civil society organisations and contniue to engaged at the main regional refugee welcome centre outside Graz, the capital city of Styria, the regional board called for a meeting with representatives of all Scout and Guide Groups of Styria to discuss which further activities could be envisaged, remembering their promise to ‘leave this world a little better than they found it’.
The result is the new initiative “will/kommen/an/kommen” (welcoming/arriving). ‘With this project we want to express that as Scouts and Guides we are not only here to contribute to prevent that children, young people, women and men who had to leave everything behind are exposed to further hardships as they continue their journey. We are also concerned about how we can best welcome into our local communities those refugee children and young people and their families who have applied for an asylum in our country.’
This is why the Scouts and Guides of Styria started collecting relevant methods and materials for child and youth work, plan expert led workshops and trainings for the Scout and Guide Leaders, and organise children’s game afternoons, to name but a few examples through which the association wants to underline its intention to live to the project’s motto ‘will/kommen/an/kommen’.”
If you are involved in a similar refugee support activity, let us know and we will share it, too!
