Local Girl Guides ‘shocked’ as UK drops support
(CNS): Girlguiding Cayman Islands has been a branch association of Girlguiding UK since 1987, and in 2020 was moved under the umbrella of British Girlguiding Overseas (BGO), but this week Girlguiding UK announced it would be pulling its support of that organisation. On the eve of the arrival of the new UK governor, who will, as is traditional, be greeted by a girl guide at the airport, the local branch said they are shocked and upset by the move to cut support.
Just a few weeks ago, a girl guide was one of the first Caymanian faces that greeted Sophie, the Countess of Wessex (now Duchess of Edinburgh), who is the president of Girlguiding UK, when she and her husband, Prince Edward, visited Cayman.
Girlguiding UK has not expressly spelt out why it is dropping its support for its international branch but said it had been looking at “how best to manage risk” and its ability to run an overseas operation in 36 countries and territories across the world with separate laws. In a letter sent to British Girlguiding Overseas this month, the UK association confirmed it would end its support from 1 September.
“Further discussions are now taking place about how girls overseas might be involved in
guiding in the future,” the UK officials said.
Girlguiding Cayman Islands Commissioner Charlie Lewis (Starfish) said that she was “surprised and extremely disappointed” that the British Overseas Territories are being dropped. She said they are challenging this decision as well as exploring options for how the historic movement can continue here.
“As a British Overseas Territory, we have a special link to the UK and the Girlguiding Branch Associations now referred to as Caribbean and Atlantic Counties that have been in place for nearly 40 years,” she said. “All of our volunteers have worked hard to be compliant with the rules and regulations, remained up to date with the programme and have given members wonderful Guiding experiences.”
Lewis said the association doesn’t know what the impact or the final solution will be, but the executive team is working to make sure that Guiding remains active and offers the best experience it can in the Cayman Islands.
The support previously provided came in the form of resources for programmes and training, awards and badges that the girls work for, and international connections. Lewis told CNS that it remains an open question whether or not Girlguiding Cayman Islands, if it continues, would still be recognised as a true Girl Guide organisation.
Until that question can be answered, all unit meetings, activities and events will continue as normal during this term. But Lewis said they need people to contact Girlguiding UK and raise their concerns.
In a letter to all of the international member guide groups, British Girlguiding Overseas said the decision by the UK had come as an immense shock to them. “Our leaders have always worked extra hard to keep their units compliant with the standards set by Girlguiding in the UK and additionally in the countries that host them. To this end, our safety record is exemplary.
“The closure of the BGO region will have a negative impact on both our Guiding members in the ex British territories as well as many British families living outside of mainland UK. Those who are already Girlguiding members will have to leave guiding and the valuable English speaking, girl-only space, which has continuously provided a lifeline to our members when they move overseas, will disappear,” British Girlguiding Overseas stated.
BGO continued, “We have worked hard to suggest solutions to the Board of Trustees in order to provide an alternative delivery method so that we may continue as a Region. We are disappointed that all suggestions so far have been rejected.”
Anyone who wants to contact the UK Girlguiding HQ to express their concerns can do so at bgo@girlguiding.org, info@girlguiding.org.uk or call +44 020 8159 4040.
See all the statements in the CNS Library.
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Category: Community, Local News
OMG. Shocked that Mother would make us take care of ourselves when she knows we don’t know how. Making us learn is cruel and hopefully effective.
We need to bring back the Sea Scouts and their training.
This might shed some light on one possible reason:
https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/information-for-volunteers/running-your-unit/including-all/supporting-trans-members/
Especially in light of the cases here rejecting same-sex marriage.
Dunno about you, but I’m not so sure Cayman is ready to embrace trans Girl Guides in their “girls-only” space.
…so..what was the “support???” you mean like our DOT sponsoring a UK sportsteam to tune of 500k???
I will NEVER understand the UK/Cayman relationships so I’d best leave it there…
They could always join the Girls’ Brigade.
Hi Anonymous. I’m sorry to hear that you weren’t aware of Girlguiding when your daughters were young. We are actually not a school specific or church affiliated organization. We have units across Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac and approximately 250 girls attend from many different public and private primary and high schools.
If you would like to learn more about our history in Cayman or how active we are please visit our Facebook – girlguidingcaymanislands or our website – http://www.Girlguiding.ky
Also now that you know about us, please feel free to share if you know anybody who would like to participate 🙂 our organization is run purely by volunteers so we always welcome the extra support.
This must be a district-bound Cayman Prep, church affiliation thing. I didn’t know there are/were girl guides active in Cayman all these years, and that’s saying something as parent of now grown daughters that might have enjoyed serving in the deployment. Next time.
Clearly you put no effort into looking… First result on Google…
https://www.girlguidingcaymanislands.ky/
Note also had you attended any major government ceremony, Hero’s Day, Remembrance Day and other parades, you would have seen the Guides out full and proud.
Guessing you were sipping tea at the Ritz with your other mummies while princess missed out…
Wow. Well if you’re indicative of the kind of attitudes involved It doesn’t sound like she missed out on much. I just can’t imagine why the UK has dropped you.
Actually not involved. Just pointing out the lack of the parent putting in the effort to find the guides for her daughter is her fault, not the guides. They are out there every opportunity they have!! Tissue?
@4:03:
Please allow me to inject a smidge of logic into the mix.
If @9:44 was unaware of Girlguiding, what search terms would lead to it being at the top of a Google search?
If you are or have been a parent of young ladies, you would draw what is likely the correct conclusion: @9:44’s daughters simply had no interest in Girlguiding. It would be nearly impossible for them not to have heard about it from their friends and schoolmates. If they thought it was cool to them, they would be asking their parent(s) to get them involved. The fact that the parent did not know about Girlguides strongly indicates that the daughters were not interested in participating. Any activity that my children thought was cool and they wanted to participate in would be brought to my immediate and constant attention.
However, if @9:44’s daughters also did not know about Girlguiding in Cayman, then we can conclude that the local Girlguides are just not getting the word out.