Opening ceremony - day 2

The Opening Ceremony was held at the Institute Antoni in Baabda in the presence of Ms. Mona Afish, representative of the First Lady of Lebanon Mrs. Wafaa Michel Sleiman.

The Chairman of the Arab Region, Essia Fathallah, welcomed the attendees and spoke about the role of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting and its centenary. She thanked Lebanon for hosting the conference and presented the First Lady and her representative with the centenary scarf.

Minister Ali Abdallah, Minister of Youth and Sports spoke on the role of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and the community services they offer. He was very pleased to meet with Girl Guides of different age groups and also was very happy that Lebanon is hosting this conference.

Ms. Mona Afish then gave her speech, highlighting the leading role of Girl Guides and how great it is in supporting women and strengthening their leading role in social development.

The evening session addressed the general report of the Arab Region and what has been done in the past three years as well as the financial report.

During the following session, Margaret Treloar, Chairman, World Board, gave an interesting presentation on WAGGGS updates and the centenary celebration.

Last session was devoted to give the attendee an overview on advocacy in WAGGGS and how it was developed on world level presented by Mary Mc Phail, the Chief Executive. Then Monjeya, member of the Arab Committee, presented the Global Action Theme (GAT) Champions in the Arab Region and their various projects and activities. Mona, member of the Arab Committee, gave a presentation on Advocacy projects in the Arab Region.

Other highlights of the day

• All shows presented during the opening ceremony were with the assistance of Lebanese Brownies and Girl Guides.
• Representatives of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award had the opportunity to present their work developing young people from 14 to 25 years with a variety of life skills that qualify them to enter the labor market. They distributed leaflets and booklets explaining what the award is, to open doors for making partnership between them and the Member Organizations.
• A presentation was given in memorandum of late Mrs. Monira Hefny, the international Commissioner of the Egyptian Girl Guides Association who passed away this month.
• Suad Hamada, a Girl Guide leader from Kuwait presented the project entitled “Save the planet”, which has won the first place at the level of the State of Kuwait and was honored by the wife of the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Al-Sabah.

At the end of the day, the Lebanese Federation of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts invited all participants to dinner at the Movenpick Hotel.