24th World Conf report.doc
Version date: Oct. 10, 2005
Page 35 / 52
ISGF 24
th
World Conference 2005
Conference Report
reach out to the local communities and dispel the stigma, but it also enables the members of
the group to grow in confidence and feel part of something that is helping to improve and
safeguard the lives of others.
Working in partnership with other organizations makes WAGGGS more effective and can
improve influencing and funding opportunities.
WAGGGS and Soroptimists International continue to work together on the `Building Peace
Among Children' (BPAC) initiative in Africa. Soroptimists provided the funding for young
leaders to be trained as Peace Ambassadors and to run peace projects in their own
countries at the BPAC seminar in Rwanda in April 2003. One of the young leaders from the
seminar is working with girls in a refugee camp in Zambia. This project demonstrates the
effects and impact of conflict and war on children to members of the public through art. Other
projects are now up and running in South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Burundi,
Tanzania, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.
One of the most important new partnerships of the last three years has been with the UPS
Foundation.
This has provided substantial funding for The Signature Programme -
Volunteerism, a project to work with three countries, Mexico, Malaysia and Hong Kong/China
to promote understanding and commitment to volunteerism.
Running for three years, the Programme has ambitious targets for recruiting and training
adult volunteers and increasing WAGGGS membership in Mexico and Malaysia, as well as
cementing WAGGGS' working relationships and standing in the people's Republic of China.
In Mexico, membership numbers have doubled since the programme started and the
Association is in an exciting phase of re-invigoration.
In China, the project has the support of senior authorities in Beijing, who are keen to see
exchange of information and expertise between Chinese networks and a recognised
volunteer organization.
The Girl Guides Association of Malaysia is focussing on building membership and on finding
new ways to enable adults to volunteer support for Guiding around the country. States are
actively recruiting and Guiding has an amazing new profile in the whole community.
We witnessed the true Guiding spirit during and after the Boxing Day Tsunami. Within hours
of the disaster, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from the affected areas were helping to look for
survivors, using their headquarters as makeshift hospitals and distributing aid.
The
generosity of fellow Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from around the world came pouring into the
WAGGGS tsunami relief fund.
I have been able to give you just a few highlights of WAGGGS' achievements over the last
three years. But now I would like to turn your thoughts towards relations between WAGGGS
and ISGF.
"What can ISGF do for WAGGGS and for its girls and young women?"
One of the main objectives of ISGF is to support guiding and scouting at all levels.
The ISGF World Committee already supports guiding by giving each year a grant to a young
Girl Guide or Girl Scout: for example, in 2004, a girl guide from Togo went to France for a
month at the Guides de France headquarters to have a training session on accountancy.
But could ISGF do more to support WAGGGS projects?
