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Weaver News
Article: Girlguiding UK; Changing the World, 2009
I was lucky enough to be part of the core team of 9 people who developed the ‘Girlguiding UK : Changing the World’ project. This amazing community action project is the first official centenary event. Many charities were invited to come to CHQ for a presentation on what we wanted to do.
We were delighted that 80 charities expressed an interest. They were then given a brief to go away and submit a proposal for a project, which amongst other things had to be fun, challenging and unique.
Many of these charities submitted proposals, and it was a difficult decision to select 18 to be part of the final project (plus one from our Branch Associations). Each member of the core team was given 2 charities to work closely with to develop, write and test activities. My charities were PLAN and CAMFED, both concerned with helping girls in developing countries. We worked very hard with our charities for 18 months and were all hugely excited when the catalogues went out to all leaders with September’s Guiding magazine.
Tuesday 23rd September saw the official launch of the project, with our President, HRH Sophie Wessex and the Chief Guide, as well as senior representatives from each of the 18 partner charities and GGUK Centenary Management group. I was asked to take 4 girls with me, who could be articulate and confident to speak up in a group, so I took my 2 YLs and 2 Guides. The other members of the core team also took girls.
They were split into groups who were joined by the charities and other guests, then each group was asked 4 questions, each of which was then debated. Sophie and the Chief Guide wandered round each group listening in to the discussions. This was followed by some presentations and a lovely supportive speech by Sophie.
It was an inspiring and moving day and we are all extremely proud of our project. We have a lot more hard work to do this year and then a big evaluation at the end where we will produce a report detailing with facts and statistics, detailing just how we changed the world together. At the start of our centenary year, this really will be a cause for celebration.
Sue Clough
