The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) is a member of the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance (YUNGA). Together, we have created the YUNGA Challenge Badges, a set of social and environment-related badge curricula. The badges programmes are designed to raise awareness, educate and motivate young people to change their behaviour and influence others to do the same.
INTRODUCTION
The YUNGA Challenge Badges are designed to do exactly that; challenge young people to engage in and take action on the key social and environmental issues shaping the world we live in.
Already there are twelve badges with more in development. They cover a range of issues, including Climate Change, Ending Hunger, Gender, Governance and Water, and are all developed in partnership with UN agencies and youth organisations, including WAGGGS.
These badge programmes are designed to challenge and change behaviour by making these global issues feel relevant to the lives of young people, and making them feel that every individual has the power to make a positive difference.
As the world’s largest voluntary movement dedicated to girls and young women with 10 MILLION MEMBERS ACROSS 152 COUNTRIES, WAGGGS has been using our expertise in gender-related issues and non-formal education to work with the UN to help develop and shape the contents of these badges over the past fifteen years.
The partnership helps put WAGGGS – and girls – at the centre of the global youth development movement working to tackle the major environmental and social issues of our time.
THE YUNGA BADGES
The partnership means WAGGGS can offer Girl Guide and Girl Scout leaders high-quality non-formal education resources developed in collaboration with UN experts on a wide range of topics relevant to girls around the world. Many of the badge curricula are not only available in the four official languages of WAGGGS, but in many other languages too.
THE YUNGA BADGES AND THE SDGS
At WAGGGS we believe that education is key in enabling girls to understand their rights and issues that affect them, support others to do so, and help be a positive force change in the world.
All of the topics covered by the YUNGA badges are linked to the Sustainable
Development Goals, and designed to help young people take action to tackle
them and make them feel that their contribution counts. The Sustainable Development Goals and the recognition that gender equality is critical to the progress of all goals are at the core of all our work.
Additional Challenge Badges are being developed to further support the SDGs, including disaster preparedness.
CLIMATE CHANGE UN CHALLENGE BADGES
The key objective of this Challenge Badge is to take young people on a myth busting, fact-finding journey into the heart of the climate change debate. It is also gives them practical ideas to use their knowledge to change their own behaviour and influence others to better look after our planet.
The activities in each badge pack are split into different age appropriate activities. They cover every aspect of climate change, including the causes of climate change, impacts of climate change and the solutions to climate change.
Participants are asked to do a range of activities including, inventing and drawing an animal that has developed features to adapt to its environment and climate; creatively convert items to be thrown away into useful household things; and take an action to raise awareness of climate change in their local community.
Young people are asked to; conduct an experiment to learn how different soils and water retain and absorb heat; explore how youth around the world are involved in climate change campaigns and negotiations and to discuss ways to get involved; to volunteer for a conservation organisation.
In this age group, young people have to understand and respond to the views of climate sceptics and hold a debate on the topic; create a documentary on the plight of climate refugees; teach younger children about climate change and its effects on humans and the natural world.
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? TAKE THE CHALLENGE!
Visit the WAGGGS website to find out more and follow links to download for free the YUNGA Challenge Badge curricula and to buy the fabric badges from the WAGGGS online shop. https://www.wagggs-shop.org
