Families and Friends

"Children have the right to be with their family or those who will care for them best"

The Scout Association is like a family made up of Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts, Scouts, Venture Scouts and adults. The age range is from 6 years at Beaver Scouts to 20 years at Venture Scouts. Our Scouting family extends all round the world. Some members of our family live in Uganda where Cubs are 7-11 years, Juniors (Scouts) 12-15 years, Venturers 16-18, Rovers 18-25 years.

Activity - The Family and Scouting

Invite some of the other members of your Scout family along to the Colony meeting such as a Cub Scout, a Scout, a Venture Scout and another Leader.

In small groups let them show the Beaver Scouts their badges and uniforms. Are they the badges that all Members of the Group wear? Perhaps you could increase this number by working for the International Friendship Award. There is a chapter about obtaining this award later in the book.

In Uganda Scout uniform is very expensive so children often wear their school uniform, sometimes with a cloth badge or cap to identify them as Scouts. If your Beaver Scouts could wear only one badge which one would it be? Perhaps they could design a badge for themselves.

Activity - My Family

How many people live in your house? Are they all family? Have you older or younger brothers and sisters? How many aunts and uncles have you and do you have grandparents. Ask the Beaver Scouts to draw their family tree.

Game - Guess the Baby

Get the Beaver Scouts to bring in photographs of themselves as babies and have a game guessing who is who. The Beaver Scout Leaders' could join in too with their pictures!

In Uganda, because of many different illnesses there are not so many members in some families because they die young. Some children do not have parents alive and they live with grandparents and aunts and uncles.

 

 

A Story - The Wife of a Fisherman

A story of Ugandan Family life

Tell this story to Beaver Scouts using appropriate language - the Beaver Scouts can also act it out.

Nearly everyone in Uganda has access to a plot of land and cultivates food for personal consumption or for sale. Even herdsmen and fishermen have farms. Most agricultural work is carried out by women. Rose, aged 24, is married to a fisherman. They have two children, aged three and one and half years old.

'In the morning, my husband and I wake up early together. Igo to dig in our gardens, and Joel goes to the lake to get his fish. After working in the gardens, l prepare breakfast for the family. Joel has his later on at home or by the lakeside with his fellow fishermen.

Joel comes home towards lunch time after selling his fish and mending his nets. He usually comes home with some fish for lunch. If a lot is left over, we have it for supper too, as sauce with some food from our garden, like matoke and sweet potatoes.l am quite lucky to be a fisherman's wife. We always have fish to eat, which many of the neighbours who are farmers simply cannot afford. I have the best of both worlds. During the dry season, many of the families who depend on greens from their gardens for sauce often go without, because the greens do not grow then. I always have some fish whatever the season, and our children are quite healthy all the time. Fish is also easy to prepare. But being a fisherman's wife is not always enjoyable. You can get tired of eating fish every day. Fishing can also be dangerous. Joel uses canoes which capsize easily, and many of his friends have died out on the lake. I do not have a settled mind until my husband is safe at home each night, especially during the rainy and stormy seasons'.

Activity - Friends

Who is your best friend? Can you describe him or her? Do you have a different friend at school and at Beaver Scouts? What do you do and what games do you play?

Make a chart showing all the people you see every day and every week. Who do you see most often? Is it a member of your family or is it a friend?