World scouting: a regional vision for former Soviet countries

TORONTO - The "1996/99 Triennial Report, World Scout Committee, World Organization of the Scout Movement" shows that the WOSM is agressively pursuing the organization of scouting activities in the countries of the former Soviet Union according to its own vision.

In 1997 the WOSM set up the Eurasia Region, which is to serve the 12 countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The headquarters of this region are on Ukraine's territory, in Yalta-Gurzuf, Crimea. Russian has been made the working language, and eight scouting manuals and handbooks already have been published - all in Russian. A quarterly periodical, also in Russian, is printed in the branch office in Moscow. The report (available at www.worldscoutshop.org) states that "the regional office will regularly translate WOSM documents into Russian." The executive director of this region is Dr. Alexander Bondar, who has moved to Crimea from Moscow.

The five national scouting organizations that have already been accepted as members in the World Organization of the Scout Movement - Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Tajikistan have been designated by the WOSM as the founding members of the Eurasia Region. It is this regional office that is now advising the WOSM on possible member-organizations.

Thus far, Plast in Ukraine has not been able to benefit from many of the services of this regional office, as the official language of Ukraine and the working language in Plast is Ukrainian. Plast Ukraine has to publish its own manuals or rely on Plast diaspora organizations to provide the necessary literature.

At the 1999 general meeting a new edition of the Ukrainian translation of Lord Baden-Powell's "Scouting for Boys," published by Plast Ukraine, was introduced. As its basic manual Plast Ukraine will now be using the "Plast Handbook" (Plastovyi Dovidnyk - also in Ukrainian) recently published by the Conference of Plast Organizations; 2,000 copies have been made available to Ukraine at nominal cost. As well, a special second printing of 3,500 copies of the "Plast Handbook" has been issued especially for Ukraine thanks to the fund-raising efforts of Plast in Canada and the support of Scouts Canada.

- Oksana Zakydalsky

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 16, 2000, No. 3, Vol. LXVIII

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