WTD 2011 message from the Chair

Dear friends,

Empowering girls and young women is at the heart of the global Girl Guide and Girl Scout Movement. In a world where girls and boys do not have the same access to education, work and leadership roles, Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have a vital role to play.

On this years’ World Thinking Day, we are focusing on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3: gender equality and empowering women. We want and need to raise awareness of the challenges that many girls and young women face and we also want to help them become agents of change.

Many of our Member Organizations are making great progress on this: for example, Girl Scouts of Korea have organized a ‘Girls’ Day’ with a number of campaign activities to empower girls and young women in the country; or in the disadvantaged Kamanga community in Zambia, the Girl Guides have reached out to girls and young women and empowered them to gain life skills such as tailoring and art crafts.

We want to be able to offer opportunities like these to more girls and young women and to continue to change lives. To do this, we need your contributions! World Thinking Day on February 22 is a day to think about and learn from each other but also to raise funds to support continued development of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting across the world.

Your donations to the World Thinking Day Fund last year have already made a difference. In Georgia, the Association has been able to organize workshops with refugees. The Girl Guides Association of Zimbabwe bought a vehicle so they can now reach the poorest girls and young women in remote rural areas. In the Maldives, they are training young women in vocational skills and in Sudan, they have set up a goat rearing project. Finally in Haiti, they will be able to buy most needed resources to keep delivering Guiding programmes.

In 2011 we want to help five more countries where Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting is having a long term and beneficial impact through empowering girls and young women and their efforts in their communities. Bolivia, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal and Yemen, will benefit from the funds raised through World Thinking Day.

To learn more about these countries and how you can help, please visit the World Thinking Day website. It contains great activities and fundraising ideas to inspire you. Why not send an online card to your friends and family and show your support by donating to WAGGGS?

After World Thinking Day, the excitement keeps increasing in 2011! In March, the Young Women’s World Forum 2011 will take place simultaneously, for the first time ever, at our four World Centres; on April 10 we will ‘Grow’ our centenary celebrations and reach out to our wider communities after planting the seeds in 2010; and in July, we will be able to report on the progress made in the last three years at the 34^th World Conference in the UK.

I am looking forward to hearing your stories about how you are making a difference this year through Girl Guiding / Girl Scouting – and to meeting many of you in Edinburgh in July.

Margaret Treloar, WAGGGS World Board Chair