Growth Best Practice Pakistan Boy Scouts Association Balochistan Boy Scouts Association © World Scout Bureau Inc. December 2019 World Scout Bureau Kuala Lumpur Suite 3, Level 17 Menara Sentral Vista 150 Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad Brickfields 50470 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA Tel: +60 3 2276 9000 Fax: +60 3 2276 9089 [email protected] scout.org Reproduction is authorized to National Scout Organizations and Associations which are members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Credit for the source must be given. 2 Growth Best Practice Pakistan Boy Scouts Association Balochistan Boy Scouts Association Young Champion 3 Young Champion - To increase access to education Project name for all children, including girls and other vulnerable groups Pakistan – Pakistan Boy Scouts Association, through Country - NSO/NSA Balochistan Boy Scouts Association (BBSA) Period of implementation of the project September 2015 – October 2016 • 18,203 out-of-school-children identified • 8,365 children enrolled in Scouts through the project • 1,401 Scouts trained to bring out-of-school- Key numbers children to school • Increase in NSO membership, from 526,745 in 2015 to 703,050 in 2019 • Growth of 33% in membership for the last four years The project Young Champion is a one-year programme which was conducted in our district in Lasbella, Balochistan, to bring out-of-school-children into the education system by enrolling them in a school as well as allowing them to take part in Scouting activities. The implementation of this project followed three steps: 1. Train young people (Young Champions) First, we recruited and trained Young Champions who are also Scouts to prepare them for the task of bringing out-of-school-children to different schools. These training sessions were conducted during various camps where Scouts learned to find out-of-school-children within their local communities and collect data on them. Thanks to the training sessions which were organised for one and a half months, 1,401 Scouts were trained and empowered to take on new responsibilities. Additionally, they shared the data with the local Scout leaders and school teachers. 2. Collect data on out-of-school children and identify the barriers to school access The Young Champions carried out household surveys in their local communities to collect information such as why some children did not go school. It was a new approach to have Scouts going directly to the homes of people and requesting parents to share information. Thanks to this great effort, 18,203 out-of-school-children were identified and their data was included in the database. The data helped to identify the main causes of children not going to schools or learning centres which ranged from schools being too far, poverty, unavailability of girls’ school to parents’ unwillingness to send their children to school and the lack of facilities in government schools. 3. Remove barriers to school access We also trained the Young Champions to convince parents that education is one of the main components that can improve families as well as the lives of the young girls and boys. When the parents saw the commitment of the Scouts/Young Champions towards education, they were touched and impressed by their commitment. This also helped them to convince parents to enrol their children in schools. Through the continuous efforts of the Young Champions, who comprise children from government schools and private schools, we have been able to enrol 8,365 children in different schools within the district. All of them were engaged directly and indirectly in Scouting activities at the district and provincial levels as well as in the national camps. 4 Impact of the project • Membership and organisation This project enabled the NSO to welcome 8,365 new Scouts and contributed to the overall 35% increase in membership in the last four years. Some of these young people are now Scout ambassadors at the district level or are taking part in community projects. This creates virtuous cycles as project beneficiaries then become actors of new community projects, and can be empowered to become leaders. The success of this form of recruitment relies on the ability of young people to share the benefits they are receiving from Scouting and to inspire others to join. For example, one of the Scouts from the Lasbella district was awarded with the Presidential Award of Best Scout. At the country level, the objective is to use the experience gained to replicate it in other districts and provinces, and to increase the overall impact of Scouting and its membership. • Education Our project contributed to the SDGs 4, 5, and 10 by offering quality education to children, particularly girls as they are less likely to go to school in Pakistan. We impacted the life of children from remote areas who previously did not have access to educational structures. They are now benefiting from two types of education, a formal education via their schools and non-formal formal education, thanks to the Scouting activities they are able to join and benefit from. Resources needed 5 • Financial resources were provided by partners we engaged - USAID (Small Grants and Ambassador’s Funds Programme – SGAFP), a grant investor agency which implements and supports different programmes in education and development all over the world. They supported the project both financially and through skill sharing. We drafted and submitted a project proposal, which was approved. The project started three to six months later and went on for a year. During the project, they visited the office and the camps, and allowed us to benefit from their international expertise and feedback on project management. - Other local donors helped us to finance the project and to increase the impact of our community service. • Human and practical resources were supported by: - The local district by assigning staff members to the project. The project team was composed of a project leader; a reporting officer responsible for the data analysis and preparing reports for stakeholder; a financial officer; two Scouts who led the training sessions and empowerment of local Scouts; two social mobilisers who were responsible for mobilising the community; the Scouts and the leaders involved in the project; and seven unit leaders from various parts within the districts to support the project on the field as the areas were far from each other. The district where the Scouts were based in also supported on the logistics side of the project to allow the operations to run smoothly. - The district education office supported the project by involving the public schools of the areas and some of its teachers. It also provided school facilities to run the training camps. 6 Challenges faced Issue/problem faced Steps taken to resolve the issue The School holidays and annual During this period, we focused on the data collection examination of nearly three months, led rather than on school activities. We also worked on to project/activities being put on hold. the revitalisation of the parents committee of many schools as this is something that can be done even when the children are not in school. As the region of the project is huge, the We trained local teams to run the project as they district office was a 10-hour drive from were the ones who know the region well and are some project sites, making it challenging always onsite. We were also relying on government for staff to provide support. schoolteachers to implement and support the project locally. Additionally, the project team, under the supervision of the Project Manager, travelled to the site every month and often spend four to five days onsite to support the local teams. This gave them motivation to keep the Young Champions engaged and ensured the continuity on the project. Poverty was one of the major factor Thanks to the training provided, many Young keeping children out of school, especially Champions and their teachers were very motivated, in villages where children have to walk and this resulted in situations where government long distances to schools. and even private schools stepped up and enrolled poor children without collecting any admission fee. Lack of awareness among the parents An important part of the project also relied on towards the importance of education and involving parents of existing student, by dynamising sending their children to school. the parents committee of various schools. When the Young Champions were unable to convince parents of out-of-school-children, these parents were then invited to parents committee meetings. There, the parents engage in dialogue with the out-of-school- children parents, sharing the benefits from Scouting and sending their children to school. At the beginning of the programme, it We created a dynamic to involve girls in the was hard to engage girls to be Young community and invite them to camps. Eventually, Champions. the number of girl Young Champions increased. 47% of the young champions were girls, exceeding our initial target of 40%. The role they played in the identification and enrolment process of the district at the end of the project was very encouraging and helpful. 7 "Working with partners and the government allowed us to deepen our impact, if we had worked on our own, we probably would have had less impact." Lessons for growth Lesson 1 - Everyone plays an important role in making the project a success We relied at the same time on Scouts, leaders, teachers, private-public school partnerships, district staff members, the government, and our partners to provide funds and expertise. Today, we can say that each has contributed to the success of the project. Lessons 2 - Young people can play a significant role by being an ambassador to their peers and recruiting new Scouts The Young Champions are the ones who recruited young people to enrol in school and join Scouting.