By Malikhanye Mankayi
This year marks ten years of existence for the St Mary’s DCC Scouts, and on 22 February, children, staff and community members celebrated Baden Powell Day. This day marks the birth anniversary of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Boy Scouts movement. Baden Powell is an organization that funds the Scout movement. The Scout movement is for children in school.
The purpose of that day was to induct two new adult scout members.
Makhanda resident Nosipho Moyikwa, who was welcomed to the Scout Group as an assistant, was excited throughout her induction. She shared her experience with the Scout Group. “I have been in the Scout Group programme for about five years now, and my experience with the group has made me fall in love with children and strengthen my ability to identify different behaviours of kids and challenges they face,” said Moyikwa.
Anna Kinsler, a group Scouter, also shared a word. “People joining our group have to make a ‘Scout promise’, committing to doing your best at all times, being a good ethical and moral person, and following the Scout Law,” said Kinsler.
She added: “The main focus of the group is bringing children together into a place where they can belong and just be children without the stress of socioeconomic issues, without the stress of school – performing poorly academically at school, just to create a healthy environment for children.”
Kinsler added that the highest achievement in scouts is the Springbok Scout Award.
Activities to become a Springbok Scout
- The focus for your Springbok Scout is leadership and service components.
- The community engagement component
- You have to do the Phoenix Project
- Complete a 30km hike
Caitlin Webb, an Assistant Troop Scouter, shared her experience. “In the Scout journey, I learned a lot of things, and I got to travel to many places like Sweden and Japan. I learnt precious lessons – First Aid and Accident Scene Management,” said Webb.
