Kick-off Messengers of Peace Initiative
Saudi invests 37 million dollars in Scout Peace initiatives !
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia this week announces a grant of USD37,000,000 to support a ten year programme of World Scouting in favour of local level peace initiatives worldwide.
Messengers of Peace aims to inspire 20 million young people in the Movement’s 161 member countries to get involved in their communities, take leadership and make a difference.
“Peace, in our definition, is harmony in a community. Anything that upsets that harmony – such as inter-ethnic mistrust or violence, environmental degradation, health or social problems –are all targets for Messengers of Peace programmes,” explains Luc Panissod, World Scouting’s Secretary General.
The programme announced this week is the second phase of a long-running initiative – in the first phase, over 10 million scouts in 110 countries took part in actions in support of education for street children in Philippines and Kenya, building bridges between Hutus and Tutsies in Burundi and Rwanda, calming violence between street gangs in Salvador and helping young Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland to begin a dialogue.
“The support from Saudi Arabia helps in two ways – it will enable us to create a global network of Scouts who are already active in these programmes, help them to strengthen their actions and to share their experiences with others – we have found that this helps other local groups to adopt that activity in their own communities” continues Luc, “This creates a huge multiplyer effect.
“Secondly, the fund helps to support Scouts in poorer countries in terms of capacity building of the local organization, and then in the implementation of the programme.”
Announcing the support, King Abdullah explained that this comes as part of a series of initiatives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which began with the establishment of the Saudi National Dialogue, which has built consensus over the last decade for the many reforms in the country, continued with King Abdullah’s interfaith and Intercultural dialogue initiative in the UN and Madrid, and the latest initiative – the opening of the Intercultural dialogue Centre in Vienna, co sponsored by the Vatican, Spain and Austria.
The Messengers of Peace initiative is now up and running. Four million scouts – in USA, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kenya, Burundi, Haiti and India will be among the first to lead the way. “The clock is running”, added Luc, “We have a lot of work to do now!”
More detailed information regarding this initiative can be found here on the WSF website and here on the special MoP website.
Click here to see the video of the MOP Launch Ceremony.(comes in a few days time)
