As a youth organisation, we encourage young adults to take on regional and even national leadership roles around the country when vacancies are advertised. This ensures that we are able to stay relevant to our young membership, whilst simultaneously can empower our youth to learn by doing, and grow within the Movement’s leadership teams.
One such youth – who has taken on not one, but two roles – is our Youth Influencer for the Limpopo Region Sharmaine, who is also the Young Leaders Representative for the region. Last year Sharmaine was given the opportunity to attend the World Scout Conference virtually, together with other Young Leader Representatives and the National team. We asked her to share her experience.
Written by Sharmaine Zitha Nhleko, SSA Youth Influencer Limpopo
In 2021 I attended my first major conferences – a Youth Forum and the World Scout Conference. In both events, I was given the opportunity to serve as a delegate. I became enthralled and began anticipating it. Attending a global conference necessitates careful planning. I prepared for the conference by looking through the platform we were using for anything that looked intriguing and spoke to a friend from the Northern Cape Scout Region who was also attending.
Our NSO prepared some documents to help us prepare for the Youth Forum and the World Scout Conference. There were a few items that piqued my interest. I was used to the first session of the day beginning between 9 am and 10 am, but sessions began as early as 8 am! Each day was jam-packed with activities, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to attend a variety of seminars and meet a diverse group of individuals. Despite my guarded attitude to networking, I made the most of every occasion. I struck up conversations with people I encountered in sessions or during “meet and greets”. It was simpler to strike up a discussion and get to know others. I was also able to network with people I had met on Instagram before the conference. The breakout rooms made it possible for me to meet other young Scouts and learn more about what we do in different countries, and expand my Scouting profile. In addition to meeting new people, I was able to catch up and explore with everyone spread out around the world, this was one of the few opportunities I had to see everyone.
These events also helped me learn more about challenges and perspectives from within our National Scout Organisation. Participating introduced me to the processes and decision-makers, ultimately responsible for making the Scouting policies and the future of Scouting for 3 years to come.
So what else did I learn at the conference? In addition to what I mentioned above, I got to pick up important information and involvement which I never had before in my Scouting years. I obtained a superior understanding of the Scouting basics, key needs for WOSM to realise its vision through perusing important approaches, records and productive dialogues. I got engaged as a meanderer coming from Limpopo to really get to propose alterations for conference resolutions, and I got an opportunity to vote on the amendments and to witness the motion being carried, I feel energized that I got an opportunity to be a delegate and to have a voice by really getting to do something around it.
I always thought that I don’t have the vital capabilities or abilities to go to enormous occasions and Scouting conferences. But nowadays I am able to stand and say our encounters and concepts are critical. We youthful pioneers might not be the head of an association, but our lived experience as a young person today matters, and your voice and views ought to be heard.
#leadership #youthvoices #empoweringyouth
