Centenary news 2011

Africa Region

Grow-themed activities in Madagascar

It was an extra special centenary celebration for Mpanazava Eto Madagasikara, one of the Guiding Associations in Madagascar, as it celebrated its 70th birthday too.

Around 150 members gathered to celebrate the centenary with grow-themed activities, including games, songs, and, of course, a birthday cake! They also took part in a fundraising activity to raise money for a camp in the summer.

Asia Pacific Region

Challenge and adventure in Australia

Girl Guides NSW and ACT’s centenary day celebrations involved over 1,000 Girl Guides who gathered at the Australian Botanic Gardens in Southern Sydney for a day of activities in which to participate and challenge themselves in. See photos of the day on their facebook page and check out this video of their celebrations:

 Music courtesy of www.danosongs.com.

A poignant centenary day in Japan

Troop 179 of the Tokyo Council held the centenary event on 10 April 2011. For quite some time, many Japanese Girl Scout troops have had to cancel their Girl Scout meetings because of a series of earthquake aftershocks. Therefore, the girls really enjoyed their long-awaited meeting on that day.

They prayed for people affected by the earthquakes and tsunami, then formed “100” with used postage stamps. These stamps will be sent to non-governmental organizations and will be sold to collectors to raise funds towards relief efforts. All members who join this centenary event renewed their commitment to contribute for the recovery of earthquake, marking their next step to create a better world.

Europe Region

Catholic Guides of Ireland

To mark the second year of the centenary celebrations, over 1,300 members of the Catholic Guides of Ireland (CGI) descended on Larch Hill Campsite in Dublin to celebrate on 10 April.

The day began with a tree-planting ceremony to commemorate 100 years of changing lives and to plant the seeds to grow for the next 100 years, and the girls released balloons to officially open the day.

The day involved many different activities for the different age ranges including; a magic show, crafts, communication skills workshops and a WAGGGS quiz.

The CGI historical photographic exhibition was on show for past members of CGI to come along and see while meeting up with old and new friends from all around the country. The day closed with all gathering together for a huge campfire.

Irish Girl Guides centenary

The Irish Girl Guides launched their centenary celebrations at a special event in Dublin on Saturday 8 January. Nearly 700 members from around the country came to Dublin to take part in this special event. The guest speakers were Kavita Oberoi, chair of The Global Girls Fund, and Fergus Finlay – Chief Executive of Barnardos Ireland. IGG is supporting both these charities during our centenary year.

The afternoon was a great start to our centenary and they are looking forward to many other special events during 2011.

For further details and photos of the day, please check the Irish Girl Guides website.

Western Hemisphere Region

National camp in Argentina

More than 1,200 Brownies and Guides took part in a National Camp in Tandill, Argentina from 10 to 15 January 2011. There were workshops, trips, campfire ceremonies and the participants also donated bags with personal hygiene products to 10 local institutions.

On 9 April, Girl Guides all over the country are invited to join the ‘Grow’ celebrations at the Sarmiento Park, in Buenos Aires. There will be games and workshops about camping techniques and traditional dances. There will also be a display with centenary activities.

All participants are asked to bring books and school material that will be donated to the Garraham hospital.

Daisy Girl Scout Troop 60570 in Western New York, USA

Leader Julie Brubaker tells us how her troop celebrated:

I am the leader of the Daisy Girl Scout Troop 60570 in Western New York. We are 15 girls in Kindergarten, all aged five and six years. I follow WAGGGS on facebook and was glad to see the 'I Pledge' photos and get all the ideas and updates about how to celebrate the centenary.

We celebrated the centenary by making the 'I Pledge' shirts. Here is the link to the photo set.

We also completed two of the activities in the Centenary 2011 activity pack - we talked about proper hand-washing (Millennium Development Goal: Preventing diseases) and we made handmade soap. We also participated in the hour without electricity (Millennium Development Goal: Saving the planet) - this activity was also part of our Forever Green Girl Scout project.

Finally, we collected US pennies for the Girl Scouts of Japan from our friends and neighbours and brought those to the meeting. This is part of the US Daisy Girl Scouts' initiative to collect 1 million pennies for the Girl Scouts of Japan. Our little girls, aged five to seven have trouble understanding what has been happening in Japan, but with this project, we have been able to let them do their part to help, and feel likethey are part of the worldwide community of caring people. See http://1000000forJapanGS.wordpress.com for more information about the project.”

Arab Region

Celebration ideas from Kuwait Girl Guides

1. Prepare100 peace bags for cancer patients
2. Prepare 100 gifts for sick children in Kuwaiti hospitals
3. Prepare 100 messages aiming at erradication of hunger and severe poverty in the world, to be sent in plastic bottles by the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts throwing them to the shore
4. Send 100 messages aiming at enhancing children awareness of environment prevention and planet protection
5. Plant 100 trees in one of the schools or hospitals