We proudly introduce to you the youngest member of the UIGSE: At the end of December, the Federal Council welcomed the „Guides and Scouts of Europe – Ireland“ as observer association to the UIGSE!

After having set the necessary administrative and legal base, the association’s activity started in January 2019 in Cork with small units of wolfcubs, wolvets and scouts. All three units met regularly during the year and were able to do summer camps, thanks to the excellent cooperation between Irish and French leaders.

In September, the new scout year started under the protection of St Finbarr, Cork’s founder and patron saint, in Gougane Barra (iconic birthplace of Cork, 6^th century). The association counts now about 50 Wolfcubs (boys and girls), Scouts and Guides, 11 leaders, and 1 Religious Adviser. A strong team of “administrative” volunteers works in the background. The association continues to benefit from pedagogical support thanks to a regular follow-up by the International Union, as well as a long-term twinning with a French District.

Already, the perspective for setting up new groups elsewhere in Ireland is appearing.  In parallel, the red branch is being established with a clan and a fire.

The whole Union is sharing the joy of the new family member’s birth and is looking forward to common adventures in the future!

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In August, seven rovers and scout leaders of the Brazilian Guides and Explorers Association – AG&E (Associação Guias e Exploradores do Brasil – AG&E), had the big joy to participate in Euromoot 2019 of UIGSE-FSE.

Together we formed the Don Bosco Clan and hiked along the Saint Benedict’s path in the High Mountains. We have had a unique twinning experience with three other clans (Italy, Slovakia, and Mexico), and especially with Monsignor Cyril Vasiľ – SJ, who was our spiritual adviser and made the route with us. Impossible to tell the experiences of Euromoot in a few lines: You cannot tell the road, you have to live it! However, we would like to highlight three points that marked us during this very special summer road: the humility of an archbishop, the strength of youth, and the experience of unity.

Some highlights:

• To celebrate the holy mass with rovers from so many other countries
• To learn that hierarchy is not power, but service!
• To walk a whole day under the rain and to see how full of attention and care the rovers had for each other
• To visit the sanctuary of Subiaco and to visit the Monastery of Saint Benedict, guided by Mgr. Cyril Vasil
• To arrive in a camp with more than thousand rovers and senior guides after a hard day of climbing in the mountains
• To be enthusiastically welcomed and greeted by European brothers and sisters who were so happy and surprised to meet scouts from Brazil!
• To have a fantastic camp fire with 1200 persons from fifteen countries
• To meet the Holy Father Pope Francis together with 5000 other rovers and senior guides in Rome! How not to get emotional!

We are not yet members of the Federation of European Scouting, but after the Euromoot, we are more than ever convinced that that is what we want! We had several moments of physical exhaustion, but seing our European brothers still singing, smiling, playing games gave us a much deeper understanding of scouting: to become and to be men and women always ready to serve.

Our reality in Brazil is different from Europe. We have spaces of significant material poverty, slums, and outskirts, and we suffer from a lack of security, we have many ultra-urban regions far from any reference of nature, etc. We feel that our mission is to bring our scouting, as a path to a happy and healthy life, to people in all these realities, preparing scouts and guides to undertake this mission. FSE scouting is a a search for a true Christian way of life, a way of sanctifying ourselves: We cannot keep this treasure for ourselves but should seek to share it with as many persons as possible! That’s our wish for scouting here in Brazil and everywhere!

Denis Duarte, president of AG&E

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