Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf: “Make scouting a family affair”

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – It is in scouting where family members could best invest their bonding time, according to King Carl Gustaf XVI of Sweden who arrived in this city yesterday.

King Gustaf, a chief scout and top contributor to the World Scout Foundation and Messenger of Peace, told reporters, during a conference at the DZR Airport VIP Lounge upon his arrival, about his love for scouting that started during his childhood days, as his parents were also active scouts.

“Scouting is my family’s affair,” and the main reason for his passion and commitment to help the organization, said the visiting king. “We want to help young girls and boys develop their skills especially during disasters.”

King Gustaf visited this city to inspect personally and partially assess the assistance he had extended for the construction of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Scouting Training Center, as well as livelihood of parents of Boy Scouts who were affected by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

The king and his party later flew back to Manila at 2 p.m., after meeting with provincial officials, led by Governor Dominic Petilla, formerly a BSP national official.

The Center, being built at a cost of nearly P8 million, is expected to be finished by February next year. It will cater to the training needs of the scout councils and of the community with similar activities.

Rizal Pangilinan, regional director of Asia-Pacific World Scout Movement, said the BSP-Leyte training center will conduct trainers’ training with the acquired skills to be echoed down to the members of various chapters in other areas.

“The focus is not only to help the beneficiaries but what they have acquired will be shared to the community, including the Girl Scouts,” said Pangilinan, who was with the king’s delegation.

The BSP national secretary-general Wendell Avisado said that Gustaf’s stern warning is not to make the BASP-Leyte training center a “white elephant” but for it to be of service to the people in enhancing their disaster risk reduction and survival skills.

The Leyte Scout Council presently has about 27,000 active members, while Tacloban City has 3,000.

Emmanuel Naval, scout executive of the Tacloban City Council, said the scouts here would make sure there should be year-round activities for them to encourage and maintain the members’ affiliation to the organization. “The training center will be of big help in this pursuit,” he added. (FREEMAN)