| ISI Report 4 |
----- Original Message -----
From: Beck, Chip Mr. (CIV)
To: Beck, Chip Mr. (CIV)
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 6:38 AM
Subject: UPDATE AND REPORT ON IRAQI SCOUTS PROGRESS from Chip Beck
Dear International Scouters and Supporters,
This week marks another milestone in Iraqi Scouting's march back to eventual full recovery. On Tuesday, with the help of Sean O'Sullivan and JUMPSTART International, 100 Iraqis will be put to work on demolishing or cleaning up bomb damaged and looted buildings at the proposed site for the new Iraqi National Scout Council Headquarters, Scout Camp, and International Scouting Center. The effort to turn a former camp for killers into a camp for kids, has begun.
The Iraqi work force will work at least 3 months clearing the debris and rubble from the 40 acre (not 15 acre as previously reported) compound of a former secret police camp. Afterward, we hope to continue the Iraqi Scout - JUMPSTART relationship by using the latter's work forces and engineer assets to help rebuild, strengthen, or renovate the existing or future buildings that will form the core of this important facility.
In the meantime, we are still looking to our supporters in the U.S. to help raise the estimated $4 million needed to actually buy the necessary construction materials, building supplies, hardware, and furnishings that will be required to make the new Iraqi National Scout HQS a worthy symbol of a new Iraq and its place in the 21st Century and World Scouting.
Last January, the world was not even sure Iraqi Scouts, Scouters, and Scouting had survived the Saddam Era. They did survive, as we discovered, and did so in a manner that demonstrates that Scout leadership training can bring its leaders and young people through the roughest of times with dignity and honor intact. Now we stand on the threshold of an exciting chapter in Arab, World, and Iraqi Scouting. Together, Iraqi and International Scouters can make a difference in Iraq, the region, and the world community of young people who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
Since the visit of Arab Scout Organization Director Fawzi Farghali to Baghdad last month, the Iraqi Scouts have reestablished internal communications with Scout Councils in all 18 provinces (governances). The ASO Cairo has invited 80 adult Scout leaders (40 women, 40 men) from all over Iraq, for a two week professional training course in leadership, program management, and the Scouting way, a project we need to support with funding. In Baghdad, Iraqi National Scout Council Director Dr. Abduillah al-Jumaily has been hard at work pulling the outlying Councils back into the national structure that was so fractured under Saddam's rule. It's exciting to watch from out here.
We are now at the point where we move from networking and building relationships to actual building and rebuilding. A call to all Scouts and Scouters will follow this email, detailing what many of you have been asking, "How can we help."
As I have said from the beginning, if we all push a pebble, together we can move a mountain. Everyone find your pebbles....
Attached is a report covering the recent trip to Washington, Texas, Geneva, and Cairo to brief the NCAC, BSA HQS, WOSM, and ASO, and other developments..
Yours in Scouting
Chip Beck
Chairman, Green Zone Council of Volunteer Scouters
Co-Chairman (Baghdad), Iraqi Scouting Initiative