All communities and countries need good leaders with strong moral values, discipline, and a charismatic personality. Scouting provides the building blocks for these leadership qualities.
Scouting was started in 1907 by Lord Baden Powell. Now, 119 years later, it is the longest and largest youth movement in the world, with approximately 60 million Scouts globally in over 100 countries. It has stood the test of time and is still going strong because it has progressive educational, fun-filled programmes, games, and outdoor adventures. These build character and team spirit, all within the framework of the Scout Promise and Laws.
Scouting is a non-sexist, non-racial, and non-denominational organisation that accommodates physically challenged youths. Scouting is revolutionary, adapting to modern technical advancements, giving scouting a perpetual appeal to the youth. Kids are enrolled from the age of 8 to 11 years as Cubs and from 11 to 18 years as Scouts.
The Book I wrote:
It is a coffee table book… “Once a Scout, Always a Scout” is a memoir of more than 50 years of my scouting journey, and over 60 years of the Indian Scouting history in Pretoria and South Africa.
Indian scouting started in 1958 in Marabastad, Pretoria. Marabastad, under the Apartheid Government, was an overcrowded ghetto where non-white people’s lives were dictated and undermined by the brutal regime and where the future looked bleak. Life in Marabastad was tough. It was a perfect incubation for the youth to become juvenile delinquents and succumb to drugs and gangsterism. Despite living in ghetto-like, poorly constructed houses, with the government persisting with the rule of discriminatory laws, we Marabians rose.
It was then like a ‘God-sent’ that with the help of Scout Master Dr Willie Hoods, the First Pretoria Indian Scout Group was born. Against the Apartheid laws, Dr Hoods courageously welcomed Indian boys to join the 1st Pretoria Coloured Scout Group. This book captures the trials and tribulations, the endurance, the resilience, and the triumph of the collective indomitable spirit of the Coloured and Indian communities during the Apartheid era in Marabastad and Laudium.
The Scouting Groups of Marabastad and Laudium have had a profound influence on many youths of these communities, many of whom today have become valuable members of society, locally and internationally. The book includes the Scouting reflections by leaders and servants of our community, including Dr. W R Hoods, Judge Jody Kollapen, Maulana Dr. Ashraf Dockrat, Ms. Verna Holworthy Moosa, Mr. Deenesh Ramanlal, Mr. Mahindra Sita, and Mr. Haneef Tayob. “It is my fervent hope that readers of this book are inspired to enrol their children in a scout group, do volunteer work in their community, and be motivated to write their own stories.”
For further details and availability of the book please contact:
Ashwin Makkan of Bangladesh Heights, Bengal Street, on 0848697703