In December, 10 Scout Network Members are heading out to Malawi to complete the Scouts of the World Award. Scouts of the World Award (SOWA) is a Scout Network only award that gives Scout Network members the chance to undertake a project of their choice within the themes of Peace, Environment and Sustainability and take action on their chosen issue.

Through the Scouts of the World Award journey, they develop skills and knowledge that will empower them to undertake a project that will make a sustainable impact on their local, national or international community, while developing their own skills.

They learn skills including: independence, team work, project management, budgeting and communication skills, while gaining an understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Network Members can complete the award anywhere in the world, including their home country and this can be completed as a team, with each member playing a project management role and completing 80 hours+ of work towards the project.

Malawi is a country in South East Africa. It is one of the world’s least developed countries and the life expectancy is low.

Some of our team will be doing work around supporting their education system, providing curriculum support and guidance and also equipping the school with resources to support teaching and learning. The rest of the team will be supporting the community through building projects. The community has been hit by severe weather and a lot of the infrastructure was destroyed by high winds and rain. We will be working to try and fix up these buildings and try and make them more weather withstanding. To be able to achieve this we need to raise money to support our efforts.