Iraq Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Council

Iraq Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Council
جمعية الكشافة و المرشدين العراقية
Country	Iraq

Iraq was one of the first Arab nations to embrace the Scouting movement, launching its program in 1921, just two years after the League of Nations had created the country out of the old Ottoman Empire. Iraq was a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement from 1922 to 1940, and again from 1956 to 1999.

History

In 1990, during the period when the Iraq Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Council (Arabic: جمعية الكشافة و المرشدين العراقية‎) was recognized by WOSM, the Mesopotamian nation had 12,000 Scouts, however by 1999, Iraq had been expelled from the WOSM.

Rebirth

In the autumn of 2004, Chip Beck, a former Navy commander, CIA operative, and Assistant Commissioner for Venture Scouting in the National Capital Area Council (NCAC) of Washington D.C., was serving a 6 month CPA tour of duty in Iraq, and had the idea to try and restart scouting in the country. The Iraqi Scouts Initiative committee was led by Co-Chairmen Beck and Michael Bradle, an Eagle Scout.

Beck and a quorum of 100 multinational Scouters informally established the Green Zone Council of Scouting in February 2004 as a loose fraternal organization for fellow Scouters serving in Iraq. Through various Scouting networks, the GZC as it was called, came to the attention of Bradle and his corporation, who offered their full support, suggesting both groups work to formally re-establish a legal, recognized, and fully functioning Scouting program in Iraq.

In early 2008, a group of coalition military officers led by Navy chaplain LCDR Andrew Wade sought to expand the Green Zone Council's model to the Iraqis living in and around the Victory Base Complex around Baghdad International Airport. Meeting with the Green Zone Council and their Iraqi counterparts, and spending several months building relationships with Iraqi civilian and military leaders on and around Victory Base, the group founded the Victory Base Council in April 2008 and began supporting troop meetings in June 2008. Following the "Green Zone" model, the VBC is a loosely organized fraternal support group that enables their Iraqi partners to establish and grow a vibrant Scouting organization to serve local Iraqi youth. During 2008 the VBC built important relationships with local schools and worked with local Iraqi military and civilians to create a camp and community center where the troop meetings are held. Continued growth of the camp facilities, and ongoing cross training of US and Iraqi Scout leaders are underway for 2009.[1]

Assyrian Scouts in Iraq

The Scout program is open to boys and girls of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and allows for local nuances to shape various regional program options.

A National Iraqi Scouting Headquarters is envisioned for Baghdad, and a former government establishment has been earmarked for this. Five national Scout camps are also planned.

Since the movement restarted in 2004, it has been taken over by Iraqis and is now run exclusively by them. Iraqi Scouts are involved in community service such as helping police with traffic control, giving first aid, cultivating cotton, planting trees and helping during natural disasters.

In February 2006, 18 Iraqi Guides attended a leadership seminar in Egypt organized by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. The association is currently listed as "working toward membership".

The Scout Motto is Kun Musta'idan or كن مستعداً, translating as "Be Prepared" in Arabic. The noun for a single Scout is Kashaf or كشاف in Arabic.

Emblems

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  The new Scout emblem, intermittently still in use, incorporates a palm tree and the flag of Iraq

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  The previous Scout emblem incorporated a pattern from the Stele of Hammurabi and palm fronds set inside the star of Rub El Hizb (۞), a symbol of Islam, to which a majority of Iraqis profess.

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  Green Zone

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  Boy Scouts of Iraqi Kurdistan

External links

• Newsarticle
• Iraqi Provisional Government article
• Green Zone Council