Service to Mankind Weekend

ScoutsTT proudly presents Service to Mankind weekend. This is a chance for you to take action to contribute to the improvement of your community and country by completing activities that are in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These goals were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

This year we have chosen to focus on three SDGs in particular. These are:

#5 – Gender Equality

All humans are born equal no matter their gender. It’s our duty to make sure that women and men have equal opportunities and rights in every part of life. When women are empowered, the entire society benefits.

#10 – Reduced Inequalities

Everyone deserves to have the same opportunities to live a happy, healthy, and successful life, yet inequalities are rising between social classes, rural and urban populations, and people of different genders, ethnicities, and abilities. It’s our responsibility to make sure everyone around us is treated with respect and is able to live a fulfilled life.

#16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Sustainable development depends on a peaceful world free of conflict, injustice, and abuse. Peacebuilding and building mutual understanding through dialogue is about taking individual actions for resilient communities, standing up for human rights, and being an active citizen in governance structures.

To learn more about other SDGs and how Scouts can get involved you can visit – https://sdgs.scout.org/

What are some activities I can do this weekend?

The following is a list of activities that you can do this weekend. You are free to try as many activities that you like for any of the SDGs. You can also work with your parent of leader to create your own projects. Also you can continue to do service activities even after this weekend has passed.

#5 – Gender Equality

ACTIVITIES

Same game different rules – All Sections

Number of Persons – At least 2

What to do- With members of your family or friends, choose any game or activity, it can be a game of cards or something as simple as stacking objects or picking up laundry and placing them in a basket. Split your group into two teams. Tell one team that they will be “unrestricted” and tell the other that they will be “restricted”. While playing the game or doing the activity, add extra rules to the restricted group. Some examples are that they are not allowed to talk or they must do the same activity in half the time as the other group. Also allow only the unrestricted group to decide what penalties there are if the restricted group breaks any of the rules.

At the end of the activity, ask all participants to share their experiences and describe how they felt during the exercise.

Awareness Campaign – Scouts, Ventures, Rovers

Number of Persons – At least 1 along with a parent or guardian

What to do – Begin a campaign among your friends to highlight instances where gender inequality exists. To begin, you can make a short video speaking about gender inequality and with the assistance of your parent or guardian post it to social media with the following hashtags #ScoutsTT, #Scouts and #HeForShe. Encourage your friends to do the same

Group discussion – Scouts, Ventures, Rovers

Number of Persons – 3 or more

What to do – With a group of your friends discuss scenarios that highlight instances where inequalities may exist based on gender. For ideas on scenarios/topics that can be discussed, you can check the HeForShe & WOSM Action Kit

Commit to Gender Equality – All Sections

Number of Persons – 1

What to do – Commit to be a person that believes that equality for women is a basic human right that benefits us all. Visit https://www.heforshe.org/en/commit/scouts and commit to taking action against gender discrimination and violence to build a more just and equal world

#10 – Reduced Inequalities

ACTIVITIES:

Live session on the experiences of a hearing impaired person in our society – All Sections

Number of Persons – 1

What to do – Join us on Saturday 17th April at 3pm for a live session with a hearing impaired person as they relate the experiences of a differently abled person within our society.

Click HERE to join.

Inclusivity audit – All sections

Number of Persons – 1

What to do – Sit and reflect on the activities that you do in Scouting with your group. Now imagine how you would have done those activities if you were different, for example:

  • if you didn’t speak with the same language as the members of your group
  • if you didn’t have the people that you share a home with
  • If you didn’t have one of your senses such as sight or hearing.

After you do that, make a list of things that you think should be provided to help someone be a part of your group that might have the differences that you thought about. Share your list with your leader and discuss your ideas with them.

Helping hands – All Sections

Number of Persons – Yourself and a parent or guardian

What to do – Gather somethings that you have too much of or maybe no longer have use for and give it to someone who may be less fortunate. After you gather your items, you can give your items to an organisation to distribute. Some possible bodies that you can approach are your school, place of worship or an NGO (Examples include: Is There Not a Cause, Habitat for Humanity, Families in Action, The Salvation Army, FEEL, United Way, The Society of St. Vincent De Paul Trinidad and Tobago or SEWA TT). Some ideas that you can consider are:

  • A Book Drive
    • Collection of used text-books, note-books or novels that you have already read etc.
  • Clothing Drives
    • You can sort and label any clothes that you no longer need according to the size or if they are for males or females
  • Care Kits
    • You can check around your home for items that you think that you have too many of and put together care packages
    • Things that you can include are: masks- cotton or cloth, soap or antibacterial Wipes, stationery, Pens, crayons, or markers, small backpacks or purses, Socks, tooth brush and paste, tissues, lotion, feminine hygiene products (especially if packing in a purse), handmade gifts, snack bags.

Expand your horizons – All Sections

Number of Persons – Yourself and a parent or guardian

What to do – With your parent or guardian, message the social media account of another cub pack or scout group in the country to find out when and where they usually have meetings (before covid) and also what kind of things they normally do during their meetings. Make a list of all of the things that are the same and those that are different from your group. Share your findings with members of your own group.

 #16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

ACTIVITIES

Who Represents me? – All Sections

Number of Persons – 1

What to do – Find out which constituency and local government corporation you reside in. Also find out who your representatives are to both of these bodies. Additionally, find out who they report to (Chairperson for the corporation, Prime minister, Leader of the opposition). Find a picture of your representatives and also find out where their offices are located. You can create a document with all of the information and keep it for your records. Scouts, Venture Scouts and Rovers can also look for the last contribution made by your Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives (These can be found in the Hansard on the Parliament Website)

What are your rights?

Number of Persons – Yourself and a parent or guardian

What to do – Search online for a copy of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. Once you have found a copy look for Chapter 1 part 1 for the rights that are enshrined in the constitution. Pick one of the rights that you feel very strongly about and along with your parent or guardian, create a social media post to highlight that right. Use the hastags #ScoutsTT and #KnowYourRights.

Duty to Country

Number of Persons – At least 3

What to do – With members of your family, friends or members of your group have a discussion on the things you are required to do for your country. Make a list of these things and discuss circumstances that might make these things difficult to do. Next, discuss the things that you can do as an individual to improve your country. Pick one item from this discussion and figure out the best way for your group to get started.

Write Your Representative

Number of Persons – Yourself and a parent or guardian

What to do –  Become a part of an ongoing movement to bring about change in our country. When we work together, our voice can create ripples in society. Elected officials represent the public and voice our views. Pick an issue that affects your community that you feel strongly about and write your representatives to express your feelings.