Transforming lives through Scouting
Every child has the right to play and to education. Yet vulnerable children worldwide face extreme poverty, social exclusion and unjust barriers to their participation in education and training. Scouting’s answer: Ticket To Life.
This life-changing World Scouting initiative gives vulnerable children opportunities to play, socialise and develop key life skills to help them throughout their lives, through a specially-tailored programme of Scout activities, which take place in a safe and nurturing environment. Vitally, Ticket To Life also equips Scout leaders to work with and reach even more vulnerable young people and to help make the programme sustainable.
Kenya Scouts is one of four National Scout Organizations in Africa with a thriving Ticket To Life (TTL) project, which builds on its longstanding “Extension Scouting Programme” for vulnerable children. In 2022, with support from the Doris and Hans Imholz Fund for Ticket To Life, via the World Scout Foundation, the Kenya Scout Association welcomed an additional 338 children, integrating orphaned children; young people affected by HIV; those living with disabilities; and young people in care or juvenile facilities.
Just like other Scouts worldwide, they enjoy fun Scout activities and also receive rights-based training with a focus on strengthening dialogue and mental health. Additionally, there are opportunities for mentorship and various entrepreneurial activities. Each unit has specific needs. For example, Ticket To Life supports children in the Joy Town School, Thika, to maintain their own agribusiness. Scouts plant, cultivate and then sell vegetables to the school, using the proceeds to support their Scouting activities.
“Scouting has taught me much to boost my self-esteem. The Kitchen Gardening project started in our school is also helping us to grow our own vegetables and learn about farming.”
In Nyalenda, Scouts at the Ringroad Orphan’s Day School have started a fish farm project to ensure a stable source of food. And at Likoni High School for visually impaired Scouts, Ticket To Life helped with important classroom renovations and educational supplies. In fact, the number of visually impaired Scouts in Kenya doubled in number in 2022, boosted by support from Ticket To Life and additionally by the printing of Scout programme handbooks in braille, made possible with support from the Neysmith family, Canadian BP Fellows and Members of the Chairman’s Circle. Thank you!
In Niger, Ticket To Life now benefits an additional 413 orphaned young girls and boys from eight regions: Agadez, Diffa, Dosso, Maradi, Niamey, Tahoua, Tillabéri and Zinder. 17 new Scout leaders have also been recruited, surpassing the original goal of 10. They have been trained on Scouting and Ticket To Life, the youth programme, how to create and run a Scout unit, Scouting and the SDGs, and diversity and inclusion in Scouting.
Importantly, Scouts work in partnership with numerous organisations supporting orphans, including foundations, institutions and SOS Children’s Village, and regular opportunities are sought for the Scouts from the Ticket To Life units to meet up with other units from the region. For example, a Scout camp was organised in the grounds of the Dosso SOS Children’s Villages for Ticket To Life Scouts and other Scout units in the region.
“Ticket To Life has allowed us to create a Scout unit within the orphanage of the Muslim Agency of Africa, allowing us to enlarge our Scout family in Tillabéri. This initiative will change how the community looks at Scouting, showing how welcoming it is.”
Plans for Ticket To Life Niger in 2023 include a second wave of training and capacity building for unit leaders, more partnerships to reach additional young people, and a national Ticket To Life Scout camp!
Learn more about Ticket To Life
Originally focused on supporting vulnerable children living on the streets, the Ticket To Life initiative has been massively scaled up thanks to generous and long-term support via the Doris and Hans Imholz Ticket To Life Fund. The initiative now also supports children and youth affected by conflict or disaster; refugees; Internally Displaced People; children and youth affected by HIV; children and youth living with disabilities; orphaned children and youth or those in the care of public or private authorities; ethnic minorities; and children in juvenile facilities or youth detention centres. It’s also thanks to this vital support from Doris and Hans Imholz, BP Fellows and Members of the Baden-Powell Circle, that the initiative was able to have a fresh start in the Africa Scout Region.
Ticket To Life is currently active in Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nepal, Niger, The Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Thailand and Viet Nam.
