2021 Ratnapura Scouts Association AGM: Open scouts groups for schoolchildren
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The Annual General Meeting of the Ratnapura District Scout Association was held recently at Savon Rest in Kuruwita.
The Chief Guest for the occasion was Sri Lanka Scout Association Deputy Chief Commissioner Janaprith Fernando. He is a senior attorney-at-law and a World Scout Committee member.
The presentation of the Annual Report and Accounts for last year was tabled and adopted and the election of office bearers for 2021/22 took place where Upasara Alahakoon was elected President and Ajithlal Shantha Udaya was elected as Chairman of the Branch Committee.
Assistant District Commissioner Merril Dissanayake was the master of ceremonies.
The District Commissioner highlighted the activities carried out by the district last year, and the challenges faced by the scouts and leaders due to the pandemic and the closure of the schools last year.
Addressing the gathering, Janaprith Fernando spoke of the Founder, Lord Baden Powell, who started the movement in 1907 with an experiment camp of 20 boys at Brownsea Island in the UK.
He said, during the 114 years of existence of the scouts movement, more than 500 million scouts have held membership and obtained scout training around the word to create a better world.
The present membership of the Scouts World Organisation is 54 million with 171 national scout organisations and there are more than 215 countries and territories engaged in scouting throughout the world.
Mr. Fernando said in Sri Lanka at present school based scouting is around 90% and that Sri Lankan Scouts, under the guidance of Chief Commissioner Milinda Peiris, have decided to promote more community based scouting or open scout groups so children can continue their scout activities even while schools remain closed.
This concept of scouting is how scouting is conducted in Europe, the Americas, the Eurasia region and several other parts of the world–including Australia and the Pacific Islands.
The Ratnapura District was urged to discuss with plantation companies, social service organisations and religious institutions to begin scout groups for their communities as this could make a big difference in the local society by having disciplined and trained children.
Mr. Fernando also said there are so many boys and girls parents’ who want their children to become members of the world’s largest youth organisation, but due to the lack of school teachers volunteering to do extra-curricular activities in schools these children are deprived of getting recruited as scouts. He said this challenge could also be overcome by starting open scout groups.