News
22/02/2008
Celebrating diversity on Founder’s Day
Twenty-eight million Scouts around the world joined together in unity today to give thanks for life's opportunities and to celebrate diversity in culture, colour and creed.
Rubina Haroon, Regional Director of the World Scout Bureau’s Africa Regional Office, said: ‘Today, we celebrate the birthday of our Founder who built our movement based on values and integrity and fought for peace and equality. While we cannot change the course of history, we can all leave this world better than we found it by starting in our own small patches of earth.
‘Let us remember that membership to the Scouting movement should not be determined by status and power but by fraternity, equality and above all the respect for human beings of every race, creed and colour, rich and poor. This is who we are and why we are proud to be Scouts.’
Best known for his spirited defence of the small South African township of Mafeking during the Boer War, Baden-Powell was soon to be propelled to extraordinary fame as the Founder of Scouting.
He had been impressed during the siege at how boys had used their initiative under pressure to make themselves useful and capitalize on limited resources.
In 1907 he held an experimental camp on Brownsea Island, Poole, Dorset, to try out his ideas. He brought together 20 boys, some from public schools and some from working class homes, and put them into camp under his leadership. The whole world now knows the results of that camp.
February 22 is also a special day for Guides around the world. Baden-Powell shared his birthday with his wife, Olave, who later became World Chief Guide. Girlguiding UK celebrates the same day as 'Thinking Day.'
