The International Friendship Award

The International Friendship Award was introduced in 1992 as a joint emphasis for international awareness and forging good links within the Scout Group. The Beaver Scout Colony is an integral part of the Scout Group and is, therefore, an important part in the Group gaining the International Friendship Award.

Good links within a Scout Group should not just be a matter of chance. They need to be nurtured and can be maintained by the Group holding regular meetings for Section Leaders'. It is very important that there are good links between the Beaver Scout Colony and the Cub Scout Pack.

The second important feature of the International Friendship Award is the area of international understanding. Not everyone can be part of an international expedition or visit so it is important to have quality programmes which can help young people to gain an understanding of the world in which they live and look at the issues which people face.

This is where the projects of the UK Uganda Network come in. The Scout Association has developed a link with the Uganda Scouts Association and through this has identified that the issues of immunisation and AIDS education are priority areas for Scouts there. They are working very closely with UNICEF to try to increase the number of people who are immunised in Uganda and also to make young people aware of the problem of AIDS.

These pages along with the others for Cub Scouts, Scouts and Venture Scouts, are full of ideas which can help our young people to have a greater understanding of the many facets of Ugandan life. The activities, programme ideas and project work can help young people to relate their own lives to that in Uganda. Often there will beareas of similarity, so that we can have shared experiences. There are also many things that can be different in Uganda which illustrates the diversity and richness of life around the world.

The projects seek to assist in the areas of 'immunisation' and 'AIDS education. These topics are covered elsewhere in this publication. However, you may wish to look at some areas which can help illustrate how Scouting in Uganda is helping in these issues.

Older Scouts Helping Younger Scouts

One of the ways in which Scouting can help young people develop is by asking the older members to help the younger ones. The International Friendship Award is a badge which can be gained by every Scout in the Group. The badge which is gained is a representation of four friendship knots which, when joined together, represent the four training Sections of the Scout Group. The Friendship Knot is quite difficult to do and so it may be difficult for the Beaver Scouts to accomplish by themselves.

To reinforce good links, you may wish to invite the Scouts from your Scout Group to come and show the Beaver Scouts how to do a Friendship Knot. It is likely that they will end up having to do the knot for the Beaver Scouts, but this will illustrate that everyone is working on the International Friendship Award and, by concentrating on the Friendship Knot, it will highlight that the Award is all about Friendship.

Obviously, there may be many things which you can get the Scouts to do for the Beaver Scouts having invited them to attend a Colony meeting.

Sharing Information

In Uganda, one of the ways in which information is put across is by older Scouts visiting villages and communities in order to stage plays and tell stories about the dangers of AIDS and the importance of immunisation. Again, Scouts or Venture Scouts could be invited to the Colony meeting to put on a play or a mime or tell a story. The story could be to illustrate the importance of the country code or the highway code both of which have important messages for young people. Other messages may be related to information about health - like healthy eating, cleaning teeth properly and so on.

Game - Chinese Whispers

Following the theme above, Chinese Whispers is a good way of illustrating how important it is to listen to all of the information. This is an activity which could be carried out quite easily with Beaver Scouts with hilarious consequences! A number of Beaver Scouts form a line. The first is given a simple message and must whisper that message to his immediate neighbour and so the message is passed down the line. The last Beaver Scout then announces what the message was and the two messages are compared.

 

 

First Aid

Venture Scouts and Scouts often use replica wounds in order to assist in training in first aid. Such wounds can be purchased commercially or can be made up using plasticine and latex with the addition of some home-made, blood made from washing-up liquid and red food colouring. The Venture Scouts or Scouts could come to the Colony meeting and put on a demonstration of first aid incidents. However, the most exciting part for the Beaver Scouts could be when they become the subjects to be treated, having been fully prepared with make-up and replica wounds.

International Food

Choose some simple food items like bananas, rice, chocolate and coffee. Have a quiz to see if the Beaver Scouts know where these items could come from. The results could be placed on a world map. Using this map the Beaver Scouts can plan a journey in order to get the products from their country of origin to the United Kingdom. The important aspect would be to encourage awareness that modes of transport in the country of origin may be very different from what may be experienced in this country. For example, the goods may be carried on people's backs, on their heads, in ox carts, in canoes, boats, trains, aeroplanes and so on.

Group Collage

Make up a story about life in Uganda using the information in the rest of this publication and get the Beaver Scouts to illustrate this in a collage to form part of a Group collage. This will be a useful item to exhibit at the end of your project work for the International Friendship Award.

Group Camp

Take part in a Group camp organised by the Scouts and Venture Scouts. The Beaver Scouts can attend to participate in games and activities and to help in the construction of bivouac and other simple activities illustrating Ugandan life.

The above list of programme ideas is by no means exhaustive. Many of the ideas may be undertaken in conjunction with the Cub Scout Pack and there will be lots of ideas which the Beaver Scout Colony can undertake on its own.

In order to gain the International Friendship Award it is hoped that there can be some benefit for Uganda Scouts as a result of the project. The Colony or the Scout Group as a whole may wish to undertake some fund raising activities in order to support the Unite project. Any money raised will go directly to UNICEF who are supporting the Uganda Scouts Association and others in promoting the immunisation programme and AIDS education. If every Scout Group in the United Kingdom participated in the Unite project then there would be a real benefit to young people in Uganda and the award of the International Friendship Award will be truly deserved.

A full set of guidelines for the International Friendship Award is available from the Resource Centre based at Gilwell Park. The guidelines give a full set of criteria for the award, worked examples of previous projects and other useful information.

Additional Information

The Information Centre
Gilwell Park
Chingford
London, E4 7QW

Programme & Training Department
Gilwell Park
Chingford
London, E4 7QW

Don't forget to involve your Assistant County or Area Commissioner (International) who will be able to help you with your planning and supply you with lots of useful information.

Good luck with your planning - remember the UK Uganda Network is available to give support to any events, camps or expedition either in Uganda or involving Uganda Scouts visiting the UK.