Launched: World Scouting-UNESCO World Heritage Recognition Initiative, MoP Programme at the 23rd WSJ
The initiative aims to empower young people, particularly Scouts, to preserve and promote World Heritage sites through the framework of the Scouts of the World Award (SWA) Programme.
Through the initiative, Scouts and non-Scouts (aged between 15–26) who succeed in completing their SWA project at one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites will receive a World Scouting-UNESCO World Heritage Recognition badge, Patrimonito-Scout Badge, and certificate.
They will also be encouraged to develop Scout Heritage stories to inspire Scouts and other young people to protect their cultural and natural heritage.
The initiative hopes to raise awareness and mobilise young Scouts and non-Scouts to participate in World Heritage preservation and promotion; to promote active citizenship and help strengthen synergies among young people and their local communities.
Present at the reception were the World Scout Committee Chairperson, João Armando Gonçalves, World Scout Committee Vice-Chairperson and Messengers of Peace Liaison person, Jemima Nartey, World Scout Committee Member and Jamboree Director, Mari Nakano, WOSM Secretary General, Scott A. Teare, and the Focal Point for UNESCO World Heritage, Carméla Quin.
The Messengers of Peace (MoP), WOSM’s flagship programme, was also launched at the reception. Since 2012, Scouts have been sharing their community service initiatives online on scout.org.
To date, more than 630,000,000 service hours have been registered for over 40,000 community service initiatives. “I’m confident that the Scouts Messengers of Peace will contribute an additional one billion service hours of community service between now and the end of 2016. It is reachable and doable because the people in this room will make it happen,” WOSM Secretary General, Scott A. Teare said in his remarks.
The Messengers of Peace programme seeks to present in a comprehensive and explicit way, the educational objectives of this inspirational call for action and the practical elements for its implementation in each country, joining efforts with the SWA and the World Scout Environmental Programme (WSEP).
“That’s what Scouting is all about – empowering young people to be active global citizens and leading positive change!” added Teare.
The Scout of the World Award, Messengers of Peace and the World Scout Environment Programmes are World Scout Programmes under WOSM’s “Better World Framework”. The World Scout Programmes aim to motivate the “active citizen” within each young person (Scout or non-Scout) and move him to take concrete actions on issues that affect his local community to create a better world in a Global Network of Service, as envisioned by Baden-Powell.
Ends
Lin Lin Yeoh
World Scout Bureau
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