São Paulo – The Brazilian Matheus Vieira Portela, a mechatronics student at the University of Brasília (UNB), should represent the country in an international scout meeting, to take place from February 2 to 12 in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. Matheus belongs to the Bernardo Sayão Scout Group, from the Federal District, and was selected by the Brazilian Scout Union (UEB) to participate in the event.
The trip cost and his expenses will be covered by sheikh Sultan Bin Mohamed Al-Qassimi, who promotes the meeting every two years and invites representatives of all countries where there are scouts. In the last meeting, in February last year, the Brazilian representative was Winder Oliveira Garcia, who is currently a scout in the Goiânia Scout Group, in the capital city of the state of Goiás.
“It opened my mind to many things. I returned with great respect for the Arab people. They are very pleasant, receptive. The Emirates is very developed,” said Garcia. According to him, the meeting was an opportunity to “see others with no difference”. The scouts are a global fraternity and, according to him, it is possible to feel this climate on arriving at the meeting, which brought together 200 youths. The theme was Scouting and Intellectual Initiatives.
In February, the theme will be “Scouting and Youths with Special Needs”. Those participating must be in the “Rover” scouting group, which is Brazil is turned to youths aged 18 to 21. There are also the Wolf Cubs, for those aged seven to ten, Boy Scouts, for those aged 11 to 14, Senior Scouts, for those aged 15 to 17.
Apart from the meeting in Sharjah, there are other scout meetings worldwide, like one that takes place yearly in Egypt, and the Jamboree, promoted by the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The organizers ask participants to take their country flag, food and typical clothes to the meeting. At the end of the meeting, there is a fair at which each scout presents the particularities of his country. According to Garcia, the sheikh usually visits the meeting and, in last year’s edition, he greeted all participants.
Scouting is a coeducation movement. “It has educative objectives, but does not interfere in family, school and church education. It is a complement,” explained Garcia. According to the scout, now aged 23 and a recent Law graduate, the idea is to train youths so that they may be protagonists of their lives in physical, social, intellectual, affectionate and spiritual aspects and also, mainly, in terms of character. Scouting is not a religion and, in fact, even suggests that each member choose his own. In Brazil there are 6,000 scouts.
*Translated by Mark Ament
