World Jamborees: 2003 Report
2003 - 20th World Jamboree, Sattahip, Thailand
24 Dec 2002 - 8 Jan 2003/ Participants 20 000 / Countries 140 / South Africans 18
Report by Andrew Tanner
Ack Scouting About Autumn 2003
Every four years Scouts from around the world gather for a World Jamboree. The twentieth world Jamboree was held in Thailand between 24 December 2002 and 8 January 2003.
This amazing event was attended by 20 000 Scouts (about 50% boys and 50% girls) from about 140 countries with 5 000 staff, also from a wide range of countries. The Jamboree site covered an area of about 5 square km with 3km of beach, on the edge of a Thailand Navy base. The Thailand Government had developed what was previously "veld" with roads, water treatment, water distribution, sewerage treatment, electricity and all the other facilities needed for 25 000 people to live. The total cost of the event was about US $21m of which the participants paid US $7m and the Thailand Government $14 m.
For six of the days the Scouts participated in a different activity each day and sometimes different activities in the morning and the afternoon.
The main activities were:
- "Face the Waves" which took place on the beach where the Scouts could participate in a range of water sports from wind surfing and sailing to dragon boat racing and snorkelling.
- The "Crossroads of Culture" where a lot of countries ran different activities, typical of their country in which the Scouts could participate. These varied from a Le Crosse and ice hockey, on an in-door scale, by Canada, to writing and performing hip-hop songs organised by Germany and playing traditional Thai instruments, to name just a few.
- The Global Development Village comprised the themes of health, heritage, peace and environment. Within each theme there were 12 to 16 workshops on different topics as well as a number of activities centres for each theme.
- The "Community Action Day" involved the Scouts in going out to a number of villages within about 100 km of the jamboree site where they participated in community development activities for schools, churches and recreational facilities.
- The "Tournaments" comprised what we might regard as traditional scouting events, from obstacle courses to climbing walls, mountain biking and pioneering.
- The "City of Science" consisted of 20 different activity centres ranging from a ham radio station to computer activities, DNA analysis, chromographic analysis to solve "mysteries" as well as making fuel from biological resources, to name a few. "Exploring Nature" which consisted of a number of half day and day hikes.
Andrew was a member of the International Service Team and was assigned to the global development village where he worked in the environment theme, helping to run a workshop on the impacts of various activities on the water resources of a catchment. Sounds familiar? The workshop had been planned by a Thai NGO and had four staff from Thailand, SA (Andrew), Costa Rica and Switzerland. On each of our "activity days" we ran a workshop in the morning and the afternoon, attended by between 20 and 30 Scouts, usually from 5 or 6 different countries. The workshop comprised some discussions around the problems that each country experienced as well as practical activities on a large model catchment where the scouts placed various activities, ranging from paper mills to coal mines, villages and agriculture. They then discussed and demonstrated their impacts on the water resource using dyes and other "pollutants".
Attending a World Jamboree was a remarkable experience, for a number of reasons: Living in an environment where one could regard everybody as a friend, even though you had never met before, and just start up a conversation
Seeing young people (14 – 18 year olds), from different countries working together to overcome language barriers, solve problems together while making new friends
Realising that the Scout Movement and what it stands for, can do a tremendous amount for the development of youth in any community.
This experience revitalised my commitment to help Scouting to make a difference in South Africa.