World Issues
These are the things we did for our world issues badge but you could use them as ideas for international evenings, theme evenings or one off activities.
1. We played the Tradecraft Fair Trading game
This is available from Tradecraft and is all about Fair Trading. Each patrol was a different developing country. They had to produce (cut out and colour in shapes) food for themselves and could then produce goods to trade with Big Buy (the Guiders). Here is another game you could play to discover issues around world trade.
2. We found out two ways in which lives can be saved in the developing world
1. Vaccination
First of all we played Vaccine and Virus
The Guides stand in a circle holding hands and an object is placed in the middle which represents a person. One Guide is chosen as a vaccine and the other as a virus. The both stand outside of the circle made by the other Guides. The vaccine has to try and stop the virus getting in to the 'person' in the middle of the circle. If she succeeds another virus is chosen. If she fails another person becomes the vaccine.
Finding out more about Vaccination
After we played this game the Guides went into their patrols and we briefly talked about what vaccines did. All the Guides had had a vaccination of some sort.
Each patrol was given a card which explained where they 'lived'. Two patrols lived in villages in England and two lived in villages in a third world country. In each 'country' only one village in each country had been vaccinated.
The Guides talked in their groups about what it would be like to live in those countries, particularly talking about what sort of housing they were likely to have, if the water would be clean, if there would be medicines and doctors available, etc.,
The Guides were then given fact sheets which explained the different diseases and how they were likely to be caught.
The Guides then had to decide how likely they were to get those diseases.
The Guides who 'lived' in England decided that even if they weren't vaccinated they were unlikely to get diseases such as polio and TB and that if they did get ill there would be medicines, hospitals and doctors to help them.
The Guides who 'lived' in the Third World decided that they would be in a very vulnerable position if they hadn't been vaccinated and if they did get ill they were not likely to get medical help. Even those who were 'vaccinated' and lived in the 'Third World' decided that there was a small chance they could still get ill, as vaccines sometimes only reduce the severity of illnesses, or they may catch other illnesses and they would not have the medical help.
2. Oral Re-hydration Therapy
The Guides had a go at making Oral Re-hydration Therapy which can save the lives of babies in the Third world. We learnt that 900 babies die in the third world in the time it takes us to have a Guide meeting (1hr and a half) because they have diarrhea and die of dehydration.
Ingredients for ORT
1 litre of clean water
4 heaped teaspoons of sugar
1 level teaspoon of salt
The guides then tasted the ORT (which they didn't like) and we talked about why fizzy drinks aren't sent instead as they have lots of sugar in them. We decided that they were too expensive, too bulky and difficult to transport and that these ingredients are more readily available.
3. We played co-operative games and discussed co-operation
We had 4 identical torches with batteries. These were dismantled and each patrol was given one lot of parts in a bag. For example, one patrol got all the bulbs and the others got all the batteries. Their instructions were to ‘make a system that worked’. It didn’t take the Guides too long to realise they had to negotiate. We then talked about how they completed the game. After that we had a go at playing ‘the sit’ where all the Guides stood in a circle and had to try and sit on the lap of the person behind them.
We discussed where people needed to co-operate, from working in patrols in Guides to negotiating peace between different countries.
4. We carried water for as far as we could and talked about how we could make this easier
Appropriately, we did this in Christian Aid week. We carried buckets of water around a trail. We talked about how some people had to travel to get any water they need and ways we could make it easier.
5. We found out about Rights and made a poster
First of all, in our patrols, we wrote down ten things we thought we had the 'right' to. These included 'going to bed when we wanted' and 'The right to speak our minds'. We then cut them out into ten strips and attached them to a picture of a balloon. We then had to decide that if our balloon was falling and needed to loose weight, the first right we would 'sacrifice'. We did this until we had one right left. We compared these to the 'international rights of the child' and heard
stories about people who don't enjoy the rights we take for granted. We all then made a poster of the right we had chosen as the most important
Some Guides missed one week so they are completing their badge by making a diary of all the journeys they make in one week and finding out which are the most environmentally friendly.
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