Girl Guides to hold Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Sri Lanka in 2019

From 12-16 August 2019, the World Association of Girl Guide and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) Member Organisations from across the Asia Pacific Region will meet in Colombo at their 13th Regional Conference.  

With the theme of “UNITE-THRIVE-GROW,” the conference will bring together Member Organisations across the Asia Pacific, to celebrate the achievements of the past years and to discuss strategies for the future development of the Movement.

Three hundred and fifty conference delegates will visit Sri Lanka to discuss how to grow Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting throughout the region, so as to reach many more girls and young women, giving more girls in more countries the opportunity to develop their self-esteem, leadership skills, and make a difference in their communities on issues such as sustainability, ending violence against girls, and gender empowerment and equality.   

The week-long conference includes workshops, consultations, and the showcasing of projects by Member Organisations. The delegates will discuss topics important to the global movement and to girls in their own countries, including eliminating violence against girls and women, global leadership, sustainable development, actions to ensure enabling laws and policies, solid institutional infrastructures, adequate financial resources, strengthening of participation mechanisms, girls’ education, fund raising and membership growth. 

The Conference will also celebrate extremely important milestones for the Asia Pacific Region, which celebrates 50 years, and the Friends of Asia Pacific WAGGGS (FAPW), who celebrate 20 years of supporting Girl Guiding initiatives in the region.

A regional planning committee headed by Thanyaporn Krichtitayawuth is currently in Sri Lanka, working with the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association (SLGGA) to finalise the venue for the conference and other logistics surrounding the week-long 2019 event. 

The SLGGA, which was started in 1917, accounts for over 60,000 memberships spanning all nine provinces. It is a non-Governmental, non-religious organisation which is open to girls and young women from all walks of life, irrespective of their caste, religion, or race. It follows a values-based, non-formal educational program focusing on community development, environmental awareness, primary health-care, drug abuse prevention, the girl child, adolescent health, HIV/AIDS, and the integration of differently-abled persons into normal society. 

Following their mission ‘to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world’, the SLGGA hopes to encourage girls and young women to make their own choices in decision-making at all levels.