Pictures and Stories 2011

World Thinking Day at the World Centres

Our Cabaña

Becky Tompkinson, Assistant Brownie Leader from the UK, describes her experience of World Thinking Day (WTD) at Our Cabaña in Mexico:

‘For WTD 2011 I went to Our Cabaña and helped run an activity day for 300 Mexican Guides. I spent the rest of the week learning about Mexican culture and working with other Leaders from around the world. For WTD 2012, I am hoping to do lots of international activities with my Brownies, including some from my trip to Our Cabaña.

‘I like Thinking Day because it shows girls around the world what Guiding is like in other countries and gets them to think about the fact that they are part of such a huge organization.’

Sangam

Sangam in India celebrated with 45 participants from the UK, Canada, and Mexico. Participants learned and practiced Indian arts and crafts and visited community partners working towards the achievement of UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3. Participants also ran community action projects with those partners, and celebrated World Thinking Day with 200 Pune Bharat Scouts and Guides at its headquarters in Pune. Watch a video of their celebrations.

Our Chalet 

Our Chalet was joined by Scouts and Guides from Norway, UK and Australia. They started the day by exploring the Swiss mountains, and took part in traditional Our Chalet activities such as skiing and hiking. The evening programme focused on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3: gender equality and empowering women.  To finish the day participants renewed their promise together.

Pax Lodge

Pax Lodge held a week of international activities, MDG-3-themed activities. Participants took part in evensong at Westminster Abbey and challenges around London. 

Australia: ‘Let’s do the conga!’

One region in New South Wales, Australia, celebrated World Thinking Day with 225 adults, young people and Trefoil Guild members who did the conga from one activity to the next as they explored paths to empowerment and ways to change the world for the better.

Activities focused on the five WAGGGS Regions and covered topics from the WTD activity pack such as developing self-esteem and self-confidence, education, work, advocacy and ending violence against girls. Activities were based on positive thinking and differences in religion and culture. 

Exploring girls’ empowerment in South Australia

Wendy Davis, International Adviser Girl Guides SA, describes how her Guides celebrated WTD:

'World Thinking Day in South Australia saw 190 Guides and Leaders from 23 units gather to enjoy a fun-filled morning of activities. Some travellers even made journeys of 400km!

'Girls and young women were encouraged to think about the challenges they could be faced with in today's world by learning about self-defense and other skills. From Beating Barriers (an obstacle course with a twist on the three-legged race) to Stick it (human rights musical chairs) and careers snakes and ladders, there were activities for everyone to enjoy.

'The morning ended with a “Guides Own” which explored concepts of sisterhood, sharing our stories and mentoring as tools for empowering girls to change our world. A key message was that a single person may not think that she is influencing another but one small act can make a huge difference.

'Guides and Leaders donated to the World Thinking Day fund and supported the Sangam stall which raised funds to purchase equipment for Sangam.'

Lorraine Saunders, Crystal Brook Girl Guides, in South Australia, explains how she brought an advocacy element to WTD activities:

'The Crystal Brook Girl Guides in South Australia took part in exercises to teach them about human rights and how people to make a difference. The girls were asked to look at their community and identify what needs to be improved. 

'The list of observations was astounding and provoked a great deal of discussion among the girls. The next step was the task of rectifying the identified shortcomings. The girls approached their local council with suggestions of improvements, such as improved safety, and pointed out that they would be able to help with some of the concerns.

'The Guides and their Leaders are hoping the Council will see this as a positive contribution to the community an recognise their efforts to make a better world.'

Empowering girls in El Salvador

Asociación de Muchachas Guías Scouts de El Salvador marked World Thinking Day with a series of activities themed on MDG 3: gender equality and empowering women.

Firstly, projects by Girl Guides and Girl Scouts set up under the Association’s "Every action changes my world" competition were given awards by representatives from UNICEF, the UN Development Programme and World Vision.

The initiative was set up in November 2010 and called for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to implement projects focusing on MDG 3, including fundraising activities for World Thinking Day. 

The winning project "My ideas – realities for the future", consisted of delivering leadership training to 400 at-risk young people, and raising funds by selling water for trees in the school field. Second place went to a project involved running a food festival in partnership with women entrepreneurs and focusing on the use of natural resources, whilst third place was awarded to a project in which Girl Guides and Girl Scouts ran sessions on girls’ empowerment and HIV/AIDS in an orphanage. 

During the awards ceremony, participants also heard from successful women who spoke about empowering girls and community action. Several important media outlets also covered the event.

Community clean-up in Egypt

Girl Guides in Egypt celebrated World Thinking Day differently this year. They organized a street cleaning and painting campaign to help rebuild their country following the Egyptian revolution. The Brownies and Guide Girls planned and distributed the tasks among themselves. They started by clearing up the rubbish that had accumulated after the environmental service workers strike. Then they used donated money to paint the pavements.

‘The event was extremely successful,’ says Manar Ramadan, a Leader from the Association, ‘It was a new experience for many of the girls and increased their awareness of their role towards the community and their country in general.’ 

Greece: celebrating and empowering young people

On 20 February 2011, the Greek Guiding Association celebrated World Thinking Day and WAGGGS’ centenary in Athens War Museum. More than 300 members of all ages and special guests attended the event. On the same day 26 local units all over Greece celebrated in their own communities.

The theme for the event was “the empowerment of youth as a basic factor for their growth”. Participants heard speeches from eminent psychologists and viewed a photo exhibition about how children perceive empowerment. They also watched videos from Nefeli Themeli, who represented WAGGGS at the UN Comission on the Status of Women, and from the “Girls for girls project” leader Caterina Agorogianni. They also took part in activities selected from WAGGGS’ WTD 2011 pack and centenary pack 2011.

Former World Board Chair, Margaret Treloar, addressed the celebrations and the event closed with a collection for the World Thinking Day fund.

Sharing the World Thinking Day message in Hong Kong

More than 150 members attended the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association WTD event this year. The Association organized a WTD ceremony in which participants sang the World Song, read WTD messages and collected money for the WTD fund.

The event involved activities from the WAGGGS WTD activity pack, and some materials were translated into Chinese and put on the Association’s website so other girls could learn about and share the WTD message.          

A double celebration in Ireland

World Thinking Day fell in an extra-special time in Ireland this year: the centenary of Guiding in Ireland! The Irish Girl Guides received lots of press attention for planting a bed of 100 specially-grown centenary roses in in one of the main parks in the city of Dublin. This is will serve as a permanent record of the centenary celebrated on World Thinking Day.

Celebration in Kenya

WAGGGS’ Africa Region staff and former Deputy World Board Chair Linden Edgell attended the celebrations in Kenya, where participants reflected on the successes of Kenya Girl Guides Association’s project, the Hawkers Market, which teaches girls entrepreneurial and income-generation skills. Read all about the project here. 

Community action in Rwanda

Pascaline Umulisa, Communications Commissioner, Association des Guides du Rwanda, explains how Girl Guides in Rwanda celebrated WTD:

‘In Rwanda we celebrate World Thinking Day for a whole week. In 2011, the opening ceremony was held in the Southern Province where all Guides of the province gathered at the hospital to clean, to visit patients and pay health insurance for those who didn’t have it. It was a hard but rewarding job.

The closing ceremonies were held in Nyagahanga District in the Northern Province under the theme “empowering girls will change our world”. This province has many rural Guides. Since these women entered Guiding they have grown businesses that have improved their lives remarkably and their community in general. For WTD, our Associaton awarded Nyagahanga Guides for their successful community action activities.’

Working together in Singapore

In Singapore, for the first time, WTD was held nationwide across five districts. Girl Guides Singapore (GGS), working together with the five Community Development Councils (CDCs), reached out to 1000 low-income families nationwide on 19 February 2011.  One thousand Girl Guides, aged 13-16, packed and delivered 1,000 hampers consisting of staples like noodles, biscuits, cereals and toiletries, to poor families in Singapore.

Joy Balakrishnan, President of Girl Guides Singapore, says, ‘In line with the Millennium Development Goal 3 to “promote gender equality and empower women”, this partnership with CDCs allowed our girls to take a proactive lead in engaging their communities, understand the environment they live in and make a difference to the community.’

Other Brownies, Guides and Leaders took part in concerts, games, card making and quiz competitions in the five districts.

WTD greetings from the UK

‘I wanted to share with you some of the brilliant work from 3rd Denmead
 Brownie pack in Hampshire, England. At Brownies we tasked the
 girls with making a card to celebrate World Thinking Day.
 As you can see from the pictures they created four amazing
 cards and had a lot of fun doing it!’, says Kate Rowsell, Little Owl/Leader.