Guides’ bid to make world a better place

Guides from Oman and United Kingdom (UK) are working on range of issues to make the world a better place to live. This they want to achieve through developing understanding for sustainability, leadership, teamwork and decision-making. A team of United Kingdom Girl Guide Association is in Salalah to boost co-operation between the Guides in Oman and UK to take the Gold Project to next level through activities and engagements from both sides. Some 30 Guides from Oman and six from UK are taking part in the latest round of Gold Training Progamme, which started on Friday with their visit to Wadi Darbat, Mirbat Castle and Crafts Industry Centre. The purpose of the UK team, comprising Chole Decarteret, Alison Murdoch, Caitlin Hinson, Becki Moore, Sammy Gray, and Emma Brash, is to boost the Omani guides with the UK team’s international experience and knowledge sharing on volunteerism, which is the basic tenet of any social engagement. The Guides from Oman and UK would engage in many activities during five days of the UK team’s stay in Salalah. From Salalah the team would move to some other Governorates of the Sultanate. “After our successful orientation-cum social entertainment programme by visiting Wadi Darbat and Mirbat Castle on Friday, we did Rover Workshop on Saturday at Al Bahja Society for Orphans. Some 30 Omani Guides took part in it. It was interesting to see their willingness to work as volunteers and engage in various progammes,” said Chole Decarteret, who is team leader of the Girl Guides from UK. The Gold Training Progamme began in 2017 and it is likely to continue for some more years, during which team from UK will organise programmes to train young leaders in the Sultanate and qualify them to train on regional and international platforms and create opportunities for them to be members of the World Guides. The idea behind Gold partnership is to build leadership while working with Omani girls and young women and promote volunteerism, which is Emphasised by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) as part of its global strategy. The Guide team from UK is being hosted by the Directorate General of Education in Dhofar. This year’s Gold Project is targeting school principals as heads of Girl Guides, as well as leaders of school Girl Guides. “The Gold project aims to improve the quality of Girl Guiding by providing women leaders and coaches with more effective and informal tools of delivering programmes as well as retaining the members by offering leadership skills, teamwork and decision-making programmes along with increasing their participation and sense of belongingness to Oman Scouts and Guides,” said one Ministry of Education official who is engaged in the Gold project.