17 Sep 2015

Gift Karabo, a 15-year-old student from Tshwaragano Junior Secondary School in Maun, is happy to be back from Kirara-hama, Japan where she represented the Ngamiland region at the 23rd World Scout Jamboree on July 25, .

Karabo said in an interview that her journey to Japan gave her an opportunity to interact with scout members from all over the world to discuss issues of culture, conservation and environmental problems, among others. She said the scouting community from different countries around the world spent 11 days of incredible programming and unique scouting cultural exchange that could only be experienced at a World Jamboree.

She said although youth participation in the scout movement had noticeably decreased in recent years as less of young people showed interest, Botswana was able to send a representative from each district.

She said the trip further gave her the opportunity to meet Japan’s Prince of Yanaguchi and high ranking people from countries such as Kenya and Thailand, among others, with whom she managed to share and sell Botswana’s rich tourism sector.

She was also awarded an Olympic badge by the scout ambassador for Japan for being able to easily interact with fellow scouts.

“I will never forget the experience because it opened my eyes to a whole world of new people and different cultures,” she said, adding that, as for flying in an airplane and talking directly to high profile officials, it was out of this world for her as it also boosted her confidence.

Karabo described the event as an internationally amazing adventure that is more memorable than any other camp she had been to before. 

The amount of energy and enthusiasm that participants radiated was amazing and each of them did their group and district proud with the high standards of behavior they showed, she pointed out.

Further, she revealed that the celebration was more of friendship, teamwork, laughter and joy, adding that it had brought together various camps to carry out certain activities, share information and learn best practices from each other.

Some of the activities included walking long distances in the forest, hiking, and being taught scientific names of different tree and animal species; there was also a cultural exchange activity on one of the days.

Although in the past girls believed that scouting was for boys only, the passion for the movement for Karabo developed when she was doing Standard Six in the mining town of Selebi-Phikwe, she revealed.

“The movement caters for both genders and when I joined at an early age I did it out of fun because I was attracted by the fancy parade and drilling actions; little did I know that one day it would have made such an impact in my life,” she said with a suppressed chuckle. 

She said she was lucky that when she moved to Maun she joined the Matlola Primary School Scouts at the time the club was doing exceptionally well.

Unfortunately for her, when she proceeded to secondary education at Tshwaragano Junior Secondary School she found that the school club had collapsed due to member slackness.

Because she had the passion, she said she worked hard for the revival of the movement at her new school by first approaching the teacher who had led the club and told her of her desire to revive it. The teacher told her that as long as she would not fail like the previous members she had her blessings,” she said.

Quickly Karabo recruited members and formed the club to which she was elected the assistant unit leader and some of the activities they undertook included clean-up campaigns, outreach activities on conservation related issues; they also shared basic life skills and discussed different topics.

She said the movement trains the leaders of tomorrow to be able to survive any condition by putting one through different difficult scenarios to tackle so that in future they could be able to face any challenge.  She prides herself in joining the movement early enough because her actions have transformed her into a responsible citizen who behaves in an acceptable manner at such a young age.

The young scout blamed a lot of the current social ills that affect youth on the ample free time they have without little knowledge of how best to use it; as such, she has appealed to her peers to join the scout movement because it is meant to mould them and ensures that they participate in the development of their communities effectively.

She said if young people were given the right education and resources, parents would see wanders beyond just drilling and singing because scouting aimed at supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development.

In other countries, scouting is part of the education systems and testing hubs that offers young people a platform to explore different careers by exposing them to a range of disciplines and affording them the opportunity to test their own capabilities.  Ends