Last Friday, Venny and more than 30 people from around the world arrived in Malaysia to attend the Messenger of Peace Heroes ceremony, which was held on December 3, 2017, at the World Scout Bureau Global Support Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Throughout the weekend, the 2017 and 2016 Messengers of Peace Hero awardees, youth advisors, scout ambassadors and facilitators met and shared their experiences as scouts and messengers of peace.
Five external speakers and public speaking experts coached each participant, helping them to tell the story of scouting.
The participants also developed their team spirit through a challenging obstacle course, where they had to climb, jump and slide, all in record time.
On Sunday morning, they took part in small group sessions on topics such as how to inspire others through social media, how to fund a project, and how to create a network.
Sunday afternoon was the highlight of the weekend, when it was time for the official ceremony. The speech coaching was fruitful as the awardees managed to engage those present with their powerful stories on how they were serving and improving their communities through their projects.
The 10 awardees, including Venny, representing the world scouting regions, described their incredible work not only in front of the audience, but also in front of the whole world via Facebook live.
"It is hard to imagine if I were in their situation, especially when they have to deal with post-war period, natural disaster, hygiene and diversity issues. This is a reminder that we can always do better and beyond, more than we can ever wish, starting from the smallest thing," Venny remarked after she was presented with the World Messengers of Peace Hero Award.
The award was presented by World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) Secretary General Ahmed Alhendawi to the people who contribute greatly to disseminating the message of peace.
Alhendawi congratulated and commended the heroes before presenting them with their awards.
Keynote speaker Sarah Chen, a scout who is now the CEO of Making Asia and co-founder of Lean In Malaysia, also delivered a motivational speech about her efforts to spread a culture of peace and defend women`s rights.
Launched in September 2011, Messengers of Peace is a global initiative designed to inspire millions of young men and women in more than 220 countries and territories to work toward peace.
Using state-of-the-art social media, the initiative lets scouts from around the world share what they have done and inspire fellow scouts to undertake similar efforts in their own communities.
The initiative is inspired by the World Scout Committee, administered by the World Scout Bureau, and driven by youth volunteers worldwide.
Indonesian scouts have received the World Messengers of Peace Hero Award three times, which were in 2013, 2016 and 2017.
Last year, the award was presented to Jaenal Mutakin, a member of the scout movement from Kuningan, West Java.
At that time, the award was given by Saudi Arabia`s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav.
Any scout or scouter who participates in a project that has had a significant impact on the community in any one of the three dimensions above can qualify as a Messenger of Peace.
During the 9th Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Leaders` Summit in April 2017 in Bali, Scout Committee for Asia and the Pacific Chairman Paul Parkinson remarked that Indonesian scouts had played a significant role in scout development internationally.
"You have half of the world`s scout members. Hence, we highly respect and laud Indonesia`s scouts," Parkinson stated at the time.
The number of Indonesian scout members is expected to increase by one million to reach 22.7 million by 2023.
The Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Leaders` Summit in Bali at the time shared best practices in the management of scout organizations.
Held every three years, the meeting also focused on addressing challenges and obstacles, as well as on deciding directions and policies of scouts in Asia and the Pacific.
At least 25 scout leaders and 152 delegations from 30 countries in Asia and the Pacific participated in the summit.
The participating countries were Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Kiribati, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Representatives of scout movements from Poland, Spain, Ghana, Egypt, Timor Leste and Macau were also present as guests.
Also present at the Bali summit in April was WOSM Secretary General Ahmad Alhndawi.
The summit was strategic because it was organized ahead of the 1st World Scout Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in August 2017, and the 27th Asia and the Pacific Region Scout Conference in the Philippines.
Indonesia has the world`s largest number of scout members. According to 2013 data, the figure was recorded at 17,200,595 and increased to 21,842,404, based on the WOSM data this year.
The number of scout members in the world is expected to reach 100 million, in accordance with the WOSM Vision 2023.
Indonesia has the highest density of scouts in the world. Of the total 109 million young people in the country, 21.8 million are scout members, and the ratio is 1:5, meaning that one in every five Indonesians is a scout member.
(O001/INE/a014
Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
