Valentina Carvajal
More than 60 volunteers from WAGGGS Member Organisations around the world gathered in Soest, The Netherlands, to prepare for Roverway taking place in July 2018. Over four days of training, the facilitators, path leaders, and communications team worked on a range of tasks such as planning workshops and activities and adapting logistics to create a unique and amazing experience for Rovers and Rangers at the event in July.
Roverway is a joint WAGGGS and WOSM event and this training was an important opportunity for the volunteers to learn about facilitation, how to deliver a good workshop and to meet the people they will be working with at the event.
“What I enjoyed the most from the Dream the Way Event was the informal moments and the personal connections. I feel that the more I assist in these events, the more I have the opportunities to see how people from different parts of the world look at and perceive things. Every time I do training like this, I come back home with so many ideas and I'm very inspired” says Gitta Van Geothem from Belgium.
For Korrapin Letkittisuk, from Thailand, this experience was really supportive because she had the opportunity to learn from her facilitation partner. “One of the best things was the facilitation skills that I learned from friends that I met here. Also, I expect from the Roverway that I can deliver a quality workshop to Rovers and Rangers and contribute to creating a safe space for facilitators and the participants, in order to make them feel comfortable”.
The volunteers taking part came from all over the world, including from countries outside the Europe Region: the United States, Taiwan, Chile, and Rwanda. For Manuela Capraro, Global Programme Manager, having people from all over the world is a rewarding experience. “I think it's great for us and for the rest of the world to get to work together, in the sense that the dynamic can change a lot and we can learn a lot more involving people from other regions. At the same time, it's very interesting for people from other regions to experience the international gathering of Rovers and Rangers at an International event in Europe."
Carolina Ávalos from Chile explains, “This experience helped me to understand how they do activities and events in the Europe Region and learn how to apply some of my learning in my own country”.
Roverway will take place in The Netherlands from 23 July to 2 August 2018. Participants will have the opportunity to take part in different paths around the country and then finish the event at the scouting camp site, Zeewolde.
This project is funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.