Liberia

Promise:

Girl Guide Promise

I promise on my honour that I will do my best:
To do my duty to God and my Country,
To help other people at all times, and
To obey the Guide Law.

Brownie Guide Promise

I promise that I will do my best:
To do my duty to God,
To serve my country and help other people, and
To keep the Brownie Guide Law.

Law:

Girl Guide Law

1 A Guide is loyal and can be trusted.

2 A Guide is helpful.

3 A Guide is polite and considerate.

4 A Guide is friendly to all and a sister to all Guides.

5 A Guide is kind to animals and respects all living things.

6 A Guide is obedient.

7 A Guide has courage and is cheerful in all difficulties.

8 A Guide makes good use of her time and talent.

9 A Guide takes care of her own possessions and those of other people.

10 A Guide controls herself and is clean in all she thinks, says and does.

Brownie Guide Law

1 A Brownie Guide thinks of others before herself.
2 A Brownie Guide does a good turn every day.

Motto:

Girl Guide Motto - Be Prepared

Brownie Guide Motto - Be Helpful

Age groups:

Ranger 16-21

Guide 12-16

Brownie Guide 7-11

Development of the movement:

Guiding in Liberia started in 1920, and in 1928 the Association became a Founder Member of WAGGGS. By 1930, however, all contact between WAGGGS and the Liberian National Organization had been lost and its membership was cancelled in 1931. From 1953 to 1955 efforts were made to revive Guiding and in 1955 a representative of WAGGGS visited Liberia and helped to bring together isolated groups of Guides to form the nucleus of a National Organization. Over the next ten years Guiding spread to all areas of the country with the help of WAGGGS trainers and advisers.

Liberian Guiding has suffered because of civil wars and the partitioning of the country but Guiding is once again re-establishing itself.

Programme:

Girl Guiding in Liberia has been mainly confined to schools with open companies in a few areas. The programme is based on eight points: keeping fit, becoming a homemaker, giving service, keeping the Guide Law, getting to know people, enjoying the outdoors, thinking for oneself and exploring the arts

Relationship to society:

Emphasis in the past has been placed on community service including visits to day-care centres, children’s wards in hospitals, and schools for the blind and deaf, to entertain the children. From 1987-88 the Association added to that by undertaking a health and sanitation

project involving the construction of a well and two toilets in a village of 100 huts. The village previously had had no such facilities.

The Youth Service Team worked with internally displaced people as part of the Building World Citizenship Project. The project included a one week sensitisation and orientation trainee/trainer workshop, short term practical courses in: soap making, adult literacy, tye-dying, Rhoa Stove making (energy saving methods), Guiding methods, leadership training. 42 women ‘graduated’. The displaced women graduates have gone on to make 80 Rhoa stoves. The displaced women have also attended a reproductive health workshop and a forum on education involving such topics as: ‘What can you do as a woman after the civil war in Liberia?; women empowerment; how to manage a small business; convention on the rights of women and the importance of education for a girl child.

Communication and Co-operation

In the past the Association has been represented at international gatherings and seminars. Traditionally the National Organization has maintained good contact with the public through the press, radio and television and has co-operated with such non-governmental organizations as the YWCA, YMCA, the Red Cross, the Family Planning Association of Liberia, and the Boy Scouts of Liberia.

 

Training:

Outdoor and Environmental Activities

Camping has played an important role in the Association by helping to retain membership. Camps have focused on such subjects as health, hygiene, child care, cooking, agriculture and gardening, often with instruction by experts from the community. Other camp activities have included handicrafts, singing, hair plaiting and traditional dancing.

With respect to guarding the environment, Guides have been involved in clean-up campaigns and planting flowers. With the aid of an agriculturist, members also planted 125 coconut trees on the Association’s campsite. As part of the Building World Citizenship project, LGGA planned to create a five acre swamp into a rice cultivation area during the rainy season and to grow vegetables on it during the dry months.

Projects

• Arts and Crafts Project