In this section we bring you stories of change from the YESS Girls' Movement across our Africa and Asia Pacific Regions.

YESS Girls ready to fly again after 2 years!


After a whole two years, the wait is finally going to be over. Come January 2023, sixty (60) young women from 13 WAGGGS Member Organisations in Africa and Asia Pacific will be finally going for their international exchanges…to a different country for 6-12 months.


The worst phase of COVID-19 seems to be on its way out. As life becomes more bearable now and it’s possible to trave again, plans to resume the YESS Girls international exchanges have started. Come July, YESS Country Cordinators from all WAGGGS 13 Member Organisations will all be going to Uganda to plan for the 2023 travels and exchanges.

Earlier in May NOREC organized a partner seminar in South Africa where YESS Country Cordinators and Chief Commissioners from Madagascar, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (14 in total) attended to pave way for 2023.




In the same month, representatives from NOREC made project monitoring visits to Madagascar and Uganda to gain insight about project delivery on the ground. NOREC also met the WAGGGS YESS Cordination team and among other things checked how ready the partnership is for 2023.

Dubbed the Journey of a Life Time, the YESS Girls’ Movement gives opportunities to young women 18-35 years to go for international exchanges where they lead, learn, grow and impact.

211 young women went on international exchanges from 2015 to 2020. Due to COVID-19, in 2021 and 2022 there was a break from the international travels. WE can’t wait for the girls to fly again in 2023!

Unveiling the CAREER BRIDGER – a tool for empowering young women to adapt to the new normal

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With the COVID-19 came lockdowns, self-isolation and for some, it was a matter of life and death. For many young women a lot of things changed including not being sure of what the future would look like . There was suddenly a new normal that young women had to adapt to.

In response to that reality, the YESS Girls’ Movement have developed a resource called ‘The Career Bridger’ to empower young women (specifically 18-25 year olds) to be able to adapt to the new normal. Carefully packaged with 7 activities which are uniquely named to reflect what they stand for, the resource addresses a wide selection of issues that directly impact young women as follows:-



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STRESS BUSTERS provide the young women with skills to manage day-to-day stresses while MY HEALTH, MY GREATEST WEALTH gives them practical tips on how to live a healthy life. On the other hand ICE BREAKER empowers the young women with skills to creatively solve their day-to-day problems and SELF-REFLECTION equips them with personal development skills that will empower them to get to their fullest potential. CAREER DREAM enables them to identify a career path relevant to their skills and interests while JOURNEY TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM provides them with skills that will enable them manage their finances. Last but not least MY STORY gives the young women a platform to learn from each other by sharing their different life stories.

The Career Bridger is not designed as a one-off activity but has also deliberately provided for a ‘Take Away Pack’ for each activity so that the young women can continuously put in practice what they learn as they go along in their life journeys. Hopefully these take away packs will be handy.

In 2022 alone, the resource will be delivered by the YESS COVID Crushers to at least 13000 young women from 12 countries in Africa and Asia Pacific.


YESS Girls to recruit over 40,000 new Girl Guides in 2022


To support and fasten the recruitment exercise, an Activity Pack titled ‘Welcome to My World’ has been developed. This pack is specifically designed with the target of recruiting new Girl Guides between the age of 11-25years inclusive of marginalized girls and young women with 40% of new recruits enrolled into Girl Guiding/Scouting.


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This year the YESS Girls’ Movement is targeting to recruit at least 40000 new girls and young women into girl guiding and girl scouting. By the time of filing this story, over 20,822 girls had already been recruited.

To support and fasten the recruitment exercise, an Activity Pack titled ‘Welcome to My World’ has been developed. This pack is specifically designed with the target of recruiting new Girl Guides between the age of 11-25years inclusive of marginalized girls and young women with 40% of new recruits enrolled into Girl Guiding/Scouting.

The pack is user friendly and neatly packaged with the following six activities designed to answer all the questions a girl or young woman would want answers for, before making the decision to join Girl Guiding.


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Her Mighty Mighty World’ demonstrates what girl guiding is and helps them understand the basic context of girl guiding and girl scouting.

The Transformation’ will motivate girls and young women to join the Guiding Movement knowing the value addition that comes with taking that step.

'The Taste Buds' samples some of the interesting WAGGGS initiatives and gives a feel of some of the interesting activities that Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are privileged to do.

'Yard Stick' highlights the criteria of being a Girl Guide and Girl Scout; and will help the girls and young women to know if they qualify to be Girl Guides and/ or Girl Scouts.

'Manoeuvre the bumps' addresses some of the possible challenges, limitations or obstacles that may hinder girls from being a part of the Movement even when they would love to.

'The Compass' gives direction and guidance on the processes of joining Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting for the girls and young women who are interested.


YESS Girls woo young women into Girl Guiding

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In February 2022 the YESS Girls took to social media welcoming girls and young women into Girl Guiding. In what was referred to as the ‘Welcome to my World’ online challenge, the YESS Task Forces - across all 13 participating Member Organisations- proudly shared their experiences and encouraged those who are not yet in Guiding to join them.

It was a 5-day online challenge running from the 7th to 11th of February 2022 which saw the YESS Task Force members, Country Coordinators, Chief Commissioners and other members join hands to woo the girls.

The campaign was a continuation of what has been one of the YESS Girls’ Movement main missions - to invite and welcome as many girls and young women as possible into Girl Guiding.

Since 2015 the YESS Girls Movement has recruited over 250,000 girls into Girl Guiding.


'Yes! Girls Can' campaign launched across 12 countries

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The ‘Yes! Girls can’ campaign for 2022 has been launched. It bega on 7th March 2022 with a 5-day online challenge and count down activities celebrating International Women’s Day.

The campaign - which has been an annual event on the YESS Girls’ Movement calendar since 2016 - was aligned to the 2022 International Women’s Day theme of breaking the bias.

Girls and young women spoke out about the biases they see in their communities which need to be broken. They expressed them through videos and by posting their pictures with the #BreakTheBias pose across all the YESS social media accounts and beyond.

The YESS Girls’ Movement anchoring institutional agility and resilience

Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges that we face adapting to the "new normal", the YESS Girls’ Movement will focus on institutional agility and resilience as one of the six core result areas of the programme.

As a starting point, 33 young women from 13 countries were trained as Capacity Assessment Tool (CAT) mentors. The CAT tool was designed by WAGGGS to support each Member Organisation to understand and improve their own organisational capacity through a supported self-assessment programme.

Collaborating with the already existing CAT mentors, the new young women mentors will support MOs to identify priority areas of need and support them to improve on them.


YESS Girls call on policy makers to take action on the impacts of COVID-19 on young women

In a brave move, the YESS Girls have taken to government offices calling on policy makers to take stronger action to alleviate the negative effects of COVID-19 on girls and young women.


Smartly dressed in their Guiding uniforms and with buckets of confidence, the YESS girls presented their statements highlighting different ways in which girls and young women were being affected by the pandemic; and also their recommendations for what actions policy makers could take to address the issues raised. Across most of the countries, similar issues prevail including gender-based violence, child marriage, the disruption of school and unequal access to school, especially by lower income girls, and period poverty.


In the presence of the Kenya Girl Guides Association, Chief Commissioner Prof. Faith Nguru, her deputy Chief Commissioner, the Chief Executive of the Association and other senior leaders, the Kenyan YESS Girls presented their statement virtually to Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Gender, Prof. Margaret Kobia who promised to take action. The cabinet secretary also promised to partner with the Kenya Girl Guides Association on its response to the effects of COVID-19 on girls and young women.

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In Ghana, the girls delivered their statement to the Ghana Household Registry. Addressed to Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), their statement emphasised the urgency of the need to take action.

In parallel, the Uganda YESS girls took advantage of a newly appointed cabinet and delivered a statement for Hon. Betty Amongi whom they congratulated upon her appointment as the country’s Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Affairs.

‘We are proud and confident that as a woman you will prioritise issues affecting girls and young women in these difficult times’ their statement read.

In Nepal, flanked by the YESS Girls' Country Coordinator, who is also a young woman, the YESS girls delivered their statement to Umesh Dhungana, the Vice Secretary of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior citizens. They have subsequently been invited for a follow up discussion with the ministry.

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The YESS Girls in Bangladesh, Burundi, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe have finished working on their statements and plan to deliver them to the relevant policy makers as soon as possible.

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Through the YESS Girls Movement, WAGGGS and its Member Organisations empower young women to speak out and take action on issues that affect them with one voice across borders. This is one of many activities the girls have undertaken throughout the life cycle of the YESS Girls programme. Others include the 'Yes! Girls Can' advocacy campaign-an annual event that has been happened for the last 5 years across many countries in the WAGGGS Africa and the Asia Pacific regions.

Nepal YESS Alumnae win Inspiring Young Women Award


Referring to the YESS Alumnae as role models, Nepal Scouts applauded the alumnae for being

a source of inspiration and motivation of many young Girl Guides and Girl Scouts across Nepal.


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In June 2021, Nepalese YESS Girls' alumnae were honoured with the Nepal Scouts' Inspiring Young Women Award during the celebration of their 70th anniversary . The Alumnae were recognised for their valuable contribution to empowering and inspiring the many young girls and women of the country and bringing about positive change in their lives.

After returning from their exchange, the alumnae shared what they had learnt from their exchange in various African countries Through their advocacy campaigns, they also raised the voices of many individuals, talking about and taking action on issues such as gender-based violence and menstrual health to the environment, COVID-19, body confidence, and self esteem.

During the award ceremony, the alumnae were appreciated for influencing the lives of many, and for reaching out to the hard to reach corners of the country. Referring to the YESS Girls Alumnae as role models, Nepal Scouts applauded them for being a source of inspiration and motivation of many young girl guides and girl scouts in Nepal.

Established in 1952 as a joint association of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, Nepal Scouts is the largest movement providing non-formal education in Nepal. Since 2018, The YESS Girls Movement has been one of its leading projects.

YESS Girls take the lead on COVID-19 response in Rwanda

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YESS Girls have taken the lead in responding to COVID-19 in public places across Rwanda, including at the main bus station in Kigali, Rwanda's capital; at a big market called Gikondo; as well as in Ngoma district in the eastern province.

With the support of other members of the YESS Girls' Movement taskforce, Rwanda's National Police force and staff members of the Rwanda Girl Guides Association, the YESS Girls sensitized people on the need to observe Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), mainly promoting the wearing of masks, social distancing and washing of hands using soap or sanitizer.

In addition to community sensitisation the girls also invited one of the local TV stations in Kigali to host a conversation on their efforts to prevent COVID-19 where they highlighted the activities of the YESS Girls' COVID-19 response team.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Rwanda YESS Girls' COVID-19 response team also hosted a zoom meeting attended by Rwanda young leaders and staff where they discussed ideas to help alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 on Guiding activities and life in general.

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