WSF Honorary Chairman pledges half million to Indonesian Scouts!
Over the past thirty years as Honorary Chairman of the World Scout Foundation, His Majesty the King of Sweden, a life-long Scout, has raised over USD120 million to support local community based activities and has brought together leaders of state, industry, faiths and communities to stand with him to inspire young people from all cultures of the world to do amazing things. The results of his work with leaders from the Emperor of Japan, the President of South Korea, the King of Saudi Arabia or countless CEOs of the world’s largest companies – are amazing and young people around the world hear their call! Next week His Majesty travels to Indonesia.
Aside from being one of the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia is the world’s most populous Scout country, with an amazing 21 million Scouts - more than 50% of the global membership of the entire World Scout Movement.
Established in 1912, and celebrating its Centenary Year in 2012, Scouting in Indonesia is well known and well respected. “Gerekan Pramuka” (literally the “Movement of Scouts”) began as a community based association, but in 1970 moved into schools, and then the membership increased dramatically.
A test of their success has been in the post tsunami period, hundreds of Senior Scouts volunteered for grueling duties in the cleanup in Banda Aceh. In numerous smaller scale disasters before and since - such as floods, typhoons and earthquakes - Scouts from “Pramuka” have excelled.
In many community based activities – from HIV/AIDS Peer Education to Immunisation programmes, Garbage collection and Family Planning training, Vocational training and even honey production, Pramuka Scouts mix leadership development with very much needed community development programmes. They make an important impact on the communities in which they live.
Most recently, at the launch of the Global “Messengers of Peace” Initiative, the Indonesian Scouts pledged that within twelve months, they would have over two million of their members working as “Messengers of Peace” (on local community development projects). They made that pledge to His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden.
His Majesty the King of Sweden has been a Scout all his life, and for over thirty years he has led the World Scout Foundation – with two main goals – by building a global network of world leaders who espouse “values based leadership” – the personal mantra of His Majesty – and secondly by raising an incredible USD 120 million which it uses to support local Scouts to make a huge difference in their communities.
So when Indonesian Scouting invited His Majesty to join them – he readily accepted their offer. During his brief stay in country, he will meet thousands of Scouts both in Jakarta and in Yogyakarta, visiting field activities where Scouts are most active. The World Scout Foundation has awarded grants of USD500,000 to the Indonesian Scouts and this will be formally anounced by His Majesty in a ceremony in Jakarta.
The visit therefore will be very much focused on learning of the work that Indonesian Scouts carry out. But His Majesty is also concerned that an inspiring message of support for young people as volunteers and leaders of change in their communities needs to be promoted as widely as possible. And so His Majesty will be joining the President of the Republic of Indonesia, to stand with him and together call on young people of all cultures to work for the good of their communities.
The President of Indonesia, himself a former Scout, regularly wears his scout uniform (he is the Chief Scout of Indonesia) and supports the movement actively, both in Indonesia, and also as part of the ASEAN leaders forum.
Summary - WSF Chairman Visit to Indonesia
- The objectives for the visit to Indonesia with WSF are two fold:
- To highlight the positive work which scouting is doing in Indonesia, and thus to give credit for this large, but very humble association for its work;
- To promote the work of these young leaders both domestically and internationally;
- To provide support to Pramuka through the “Messengers of Peace” programme – for both capacity building of their branches and support to selected community projects.
- The Dates of the visit are: 30th January to 2nd February 2012.
- The venues will be:
- Jakarta and its surroundings
- Yogyakarta and its surroundings
- The contact person for the trip is John Geoghegan +41796392501
Previous visits with world leaders include:
- HM King of Thailand
- Chief Executive of Hong Kong
- HM King of Spain
- HSH Prince of Liechtenstein
- HE President of Korea
- HSH Prince of Monaco
- HM Queen of England
- HM King of Saudi Arabia
- HE Prime Minister of Thailand
- HM Queen of Denmark
- HM Sultan of Oman
- HM Queen of Netherlands
- HMs Emperor and Empress of Japan
- HH Sheikh Mohammed of Abu Dhabi
- HH Sheikh Sultan of Sharjah
- HE Vice President of Philippines
Each of these world leaders has joined His Majesty in inspiring young people in their own countries to work as scouts to become leaders for change in their communities.