Written by Letlhogonolo Modise and Eugene Kgori, SSA Youth Influencers

To try and grow Scouting in the Mahikeng District of the North West Region, a stream of recruitment drives took place in Mahikeng local schools during the Heritage month of September. The drive was arranged by the Mahikeng District Scout Council and were led by Troop Scouters and Rovers. We wanted to encourage the youth and young adults to be a part of this exciting Movement known as SCOUTS South Africa.

Scouting in Mahikeng has always been a big part of the SA Scout heritage, but also a big part of the community. The majority of our community members claim to have grown up with Scouting and to have been members of this Movement at some point in their lives ,or they knew about it from friends and family. Scouting has been around for so many years that Scouting is seen to be the organization that is the ‘Guider to the right path’.

As part of the drive the Letsatsing High, Molema Primary ,Tswellopele Primary and Batswana High School were visited. An estimated 60 learners were introduced to the SA Scout Movement and we are looking forward to establishing Registered Scout Groups in the schools.

The learners and teachers were to introduced to the “Learning by Doing” Methodology fostering new connections with both uniformed and non-uniformed members at the school. A series of exhibitions were set up ranging from the history of Scouting to basic First Aid, Backwoodsman, Pioneering and gadgets, as well as uniform-badge display boards and booklets. The exhibition aimed to assist learners to reflect and aspire to be part of our Movement.

During an open day hosted at the Tontonyane Village in Mahikeng a new Scout Group 1st Tontonyane was opened under the leadership of Mr. Spax Machabe Ikgopoleng. “It is truly an honour to introduce my village to this exciting journey. I am looking forward to my meetings with fellow Cubs and Scouts in my rowing boat”, laughs Spax.

We are looking forward to our next recruitment drive in Mahikeng soon!