GSP AND ITS MISSION

GILIAN M. LORENZO ust recently, 735 Senior and Cadet Girl Scouts nationwide were conferred the prestigious Chief Girl Scout medal, the highest award bestowed upon girl scouts.

They were given the medal for transforming their communities through development projects.

The Chief Girl Scout awards which was launched in July 1976 highlights the Girl Scout’s role in nation building as exemplified by the Chief Girl Scout and her distinguished leadership and vital contribution to nation building.

Most of the awardees initiated projects on environmental protection and preservation.

According to Susan R. Locsin, National President of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, the awardees are part of the 10,000-strong Chief Girl Scout Medalists who have been awarded since its launch 41 years ago.

Girl Scouting is a worldwide movement that provides girls and young women, aged 4 to 21 years old, a non-formal educational program based on character development and the ideals of service.

The Movement is open to girls and young women of diverse race and religion and cuts across social barriers. While membership is voluntary, the Movement is non-political and non-sectarian. It is independent and nongovernmental and helps in nation-building through efforts pertaining to the home, school, church, government units and other agencies.

While girls are the focus of the Movement, the adult volunteers also enjoy many stimulating opportunities by serving the Movement. These volunteers hold ultimate responsibility for the Movement.

Self-training through enriching experiences in Girl Scouting influences girls and young women into becoming change agents who are responsible, decisive, useful, respected and acknowledged citizens in a changing world.

Its mission is to help girls and young women realize the ideals of womanhood and prepare themselves for the responsibilities in the home, the nation and the world community.

Its vision, meanwhile, is for the Filipino girl and young woman to be progressive, dynamic, pro-active, patriotic and God-loving.

It took one courageous woman, the suffragist Josefa Llanes Escoda to form and lead the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) Movement after coming from the United States of America to take up basic scouting lessons in 1939.

Another woman leader, Pilar Hidalgo Lim, then national president of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, joined hand in hand with Escoda and led the way in further developing the Movement

J--oOo— The author is Teacher I at San Jose Elementary School, Macabebe Pampanga