Anyone got a Scout or Explorer going to WSJ in South Korea?

[lazylittlelucy]

Just thought I'd start a thread for parents if there are any on here.
My 17yo DD is going as an Explorer and is getting excited now.
Anyone else?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66407392

From the BBC article:
The UK Foreign Office said on Thursday it had officials on the ground supporting British scouts attending the event.

Thats SERIOUSLY not cool for the Foreign Office to have to send in the cavalry.

I am SO SAD for them, all. My DD and her unit were having a great time 😓

From that article it states that they are travelling home as originally planned so not coming home early. But will they be able to do the activities etc?

They are moving to Seoul for the next 11 days, but it's not the same.

@lazylittlelucy I'm so sorry. Have you heard from your DD since the news broke?

Yes, I wonder what the plans are now. It's all well and good keeping them in hotels but what are they going to do for the next 9 days?

I have heard from DD. As is the trouble with social media, we saw the BBC news before they had their unit meeting. They were managing with the heat and were have a good time. Seoul without all the international Scouts is just not the same 😥

From what I've seen, it looks like there's a lack of transportation - so the idea that they can go to and from site to do activities looks like nonsense. There's 4000 British Scouts. So they will be stuck in Seoul until / if they can sort issues on site.

The fact it looks like its going to take them two days to pull the Brits off site says it all really.

And the fact the UK government clearly has had to stage something of an intervention.

DH watched the intro speech from Bear Grylls online. He was shocked. The bloke was dripping with sweat and looking to be struggling. And thats Bear Grylls.

The South Koreans by their own admssion had failed to plan for a heatwave. For an event half the size of Glastonbury for under 18s. Thats fucking stupid level shit. Thats being reported that resulted in 3% of the entire contigent were hospitalised yesterday.

Apparently there were supposed to be 173 events on day 3. 170 were cancelled. So doesn't look like the UK contigent will be missing much anyway.

My DS will be gutted... but I trust that UKC would only have done this if there was no other way to manage it. They have to work to keep them all safe and will look after them all. The kids will still have a fantastic time - just not as planned...

I'm assuming most won't have been to Seoul before so at least that might be interesting for them. Are other countries moving your people out?

I love how the UK scouts tell the parents not to tell their kids what is going nor to tell the press.

Do they not understand social media and phones????

Journalists have now been banned from site, which isn't going to help matters.

I've done the catering shop for camps before. So to see what the kids have been given to eat being circulated on twitter is fucking nuts. What part of planning was that?

WTF did the South Korean government spend £120million on?!

Not seen anything about other contigents. The British contigent is the biggest - its 10% of the 40,000.

The fact that military nurses and doctors have been drafted in is crazy.

We know kids there. Its seriously not cool.

Whats the scouts motto? "Be prepared unless you are South Korean"

My colleague is getting her DD a flight home. She just wants to come home. Her friend vomited & collapsed in the heat yesterday. It sounds horrendous.

This was posted yesterday:

Czech Embassy Seoul AT CzechEmbSeoul
The 25th World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) will be held in, about 300 kilometers away from Seoul, from August 1-12, 2023. There are 413 participants from CZ. Although most of them arrived in Seoul on 1 August, they could not move to the campground due to its unpreparedness.

And because there was a real threat that they would not have a place to sleep, the Czech Scout leadership requested a team of staff from the Czech Embassy in Seoul for help.

The embassy promptly arranged accommodation for 183 Scouts in the dorms of HUFS University in Yongin, helped them to buy food and drink and also arranged buses for Aug. 2. The Scouts appreciated when we delivered 20 spades and hoes and 240 toilet papers directly to Jamboree site.

In the past few days the whole area was hit by heavy downpours. The organisers finally solved the situation by procuring more than a hundred thousand plastic pallets so that for every participant in the jamboree there were two pallets on which the participants set up their tents.

I have no idea how that site was ever signed off by WOSM as appropriate and ready to host a WSJ.

UKSA will not have pulled out of the site without genuine fears for their ongoing capacity to safeguard the young people in their care. The business about "to alleviate pressure on the site" is a way of doing this without saying publically that they have lost confidence in the organisers.
I'm utterly flabbergasted that this has been allowed to happen. South Korea has hosted before, albeit a long time ago, and have an excellent reputation organisationally.
I went to the WSJ in Chile as a leader in 98/99, and although it was a dry heat there, so less dangerous, and there was plenty of shade laid on.
The poor loo / cleaning provision, in a flooded, humid area, will have left UKSA and their medical team, with no other choice.

So disappointed.. DD unit was coping well after a rough start, and a degree of rough is fine. But they messed up the basics and I appreciate the decision to pull out. From the communication they will do their best to provide experiences in Seoul.. it looked a lot of fun pre-jamboree, so hopefully some of these will be revived.

Deeply embarrassing for Korea..

I think this is the bottomline.

The key thing is it has descended into a Health and Safety disaster.

With 3% hospitalised - albeit with 'minor' issues in one day, military doctors and nurses drafted in and multiple foreign embassies drafted in (after it was already decided that the UK, US, NZ and AUS contigents be delayed to getting onsite) there hasn't been much option for UK Scouting.

There's people on social media saying that their kid is having a great time don't ruin it for them but the reality is there isn't any choice.

My other fav quote of the day:
'Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far,' Jacob Murray, the director for World Events at the Scouts, told reporters.

Thats 8% VERY unsatisfied. What about the % just mildly unsatisfied? Talk about trying to polish a turd.

These kids will be the kids who aren't the 'soft' kids too. Precisely because they are scouts!

My boyfriend is a unit leader for one of the groups so has been keeping me up to date and whilst he's put a positive spin on the camp, I know it's been challenging.

The heat has been punishing but the amount of bugs from being in wet, humid conditions have also been awful (quite a few infected bites, swellings etc!). On a call earlier, three ambulances with lights flashing passed him in under 15 minutes, and he was simply walking to the Leaders meeting.

It all sounds shambolic but my god, what an enormous shame for all those scouts, explorers and volunteers who have planned for so many months! Seoul will be amazing, but so SO different from a camp with 40,000 other young people!

My colleague is getting her DD a flight home. She just wants to come home.

I suspect they won't be the only one. It sounds like a nightmare out there.

Raphael Rashid AT koryodynasty (freelance journalist in Seoul)
Update: World Organization of the Scout Movement: "We have been informed that the Contingent from the United Kingdom has decided to depart from the Jamboree campsite early, allowing Scouts to continue their Jamboree experience in Seoul until they are scheduled to travel home."

"WOSM requested the Host today to consider alternative options to wind down the event earlier than scheduled, and support participants until they depart for their home countries."

"The Host decided to proceed with the delivery of the event with assurances that they will do their utmost to tackle the issues caused by the heatwave by adding significant additional resources."

"We continue to call on the Host and the Korean Government to follow through on their commitments to mobilise additional financial and human resources, and to make the health and safety of participants their highest priority."

https://scout.org/news/statement-25th-jamboree

Sounds like World Scouting is now trying to pull the plug early on the entire thing.

But the hosts are resisting.

DS just told me that scouts are leaving tomorrow and IST leaving Sunday.

Wow! I’ve been to two WSJs before as well as many many large scale UK events, and whilst there are always a few niggles which need ironing out, I can’t recall anything that’s been so bad the group has pulled out.

The UK contingent make up 10%. It will ease the pressure, but will also make the USA, Aus, NZ and Canada think, plus many of the big European groups.

Are they pulling IST too?

Whilst I am happy that the UKC has mobilised, I am uncomfortable that the young people of other nations may have no choice but to Pocari sweat it out

Yes UK IST are leaving on Sunday.