Ten Scouts Receive 2017 Messengers of Peace Heroes Award

Last Friday, more than 30 people from all over the world arrived in Malaysia to attend the Messenger of Peace Heroes ceremony which was held on 3 December 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, slide – all in record time!

On Sunday morning, they took part in small group sessions on topics such as 'how to inspire others via social media', 'how to fund a project' and 'how to create a network'.

Daria from Ukraine enjoyed all the programmes. ‘But I was most impressed by our team building game. The most useful for me was the public speaking session and the session about the Scout Donation Platform and the Scout of the World Award programme,’ she said.

Sunday afternoon was the highlight of the weekend – 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 are serving and improving their communities through their projects.

The ten awardees, representing all 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’s 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, etc. This becomes a reminder that we can always do better and beyond, more than we could ever wish... starting from the smallest thing,’ remarked Venny, a Scout Hero from Indonesia.

WOSM Secretary General, Ahmad Alhendawi, congratulated and commended the heroes before presenting them with their awards.

Keynote speaker Sarah Chen, a Scout who is now CEO of Making Asia and co-founder of Lean In Malaysia, also delivered a motivational speech on her efforts to spread a culture of peace, and defend women's rights.

If you want to get to know our awardees better, you can watch the video here.