International adventures in the UK: GOLD 2024
The 2024 GOLD UK team tells us about this year’s GOLD UK/Greece project
Girlguiding offers lots of opportunities to experience international adventure.
And we want to make sure these can be accessed at home as well as abroad.
This summer, in a pilot of our Guiding Overseas Linked with Development (GOLD) programme, 6 Girlguiding leaders from the UK welcomed 11 Greek guiding leaders to the UK. Over 3 weeks the UK and Greek teams ran a series of trainings around leadership and offered unique cultural exchange opportunities to members across the UK.
The UK team included 6 women, Sophie, Emma, Catriona, Georgia, Ellie and Michelle. Greek guiding includes male and female members, and the Greek contingent included Marianna, Vilma, Maria, Αsimenia, Alexandros, Rania, Nikos, Ksenia, Georgia, Eleanna and Afroditi.
A lush experience
Within a whirlwind schedule, the teams attended the Essex International Jamboree, Camp CEO in Scotland, and Pax Lodge. It was, as Rania says 'an opportunity to exchange games, songs and information about each other, to make new friends, to see Girlguiding from another perspective and to share moments and thoughts.'
'It was 2 countries working together and sharing their knowledge, learning new things about each other's culture,' Ksenia says. With Marianna continuing, '[it was] an eye-opening, utterly inspiring opportunity to discover another member organisation, see the way they work and guide and hopefully the beginning of a long-term collaboration!'
Nikos and Maria loved creating new ways for people to learn about international leadership techniques. And Vilma's highlight was the Essex International Jamboree, whilst Alexandros really enjoyed meeting Girlguiding UK's advocacy group Amplify.
'We laughed, cried, got upset, fell in love, became fascinated, set up tents without mallets or hammers, carried stuff, went up and down several blocks of stairs and took spontaneous photos for social media,' Asimenia finishes, 'overall it was a lush experience!'
Read on to find out more about this exciting adventure from the UK team. If you fancy taking an international leap, at home or abroad, check out all the exciting opportunities you can take part in.
The UK team on the GOLD UK/Greece project

Can you tell us what happened during the GOLD UK/Greece project?
'Together we co-planned and co-delivered a variety of trainings on the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) Leadership Mindsets.'
During our GOLD project we delivered 33 trainings sessions to 280 children and 63 adult members.'
'The aim of our sessions was to facilitate the participants to reflect on their own ideas of leadership and leadership behaviours as well as who can be a leader. They were able to challenge and develop these preconceptions and identify ways in which they can become even better leaders.'

Our sessions also included elements of cultural exchange with the Greek team members, where they shared stories, games and activities that are common in Greek guiding.'
'When we weren’t completing trainings, we were travelling, enjoying getting to know the team better or having other amazing opportunities such as meeting the Greek Ambassador!'

What were your highlights of the experience?
'It’s so difficult to pick just 1 highlight as we all had such an incredible time. But a few of our favourite memories include visiting Pax Lodge and attending the Pinning Ceremony, where team members were awarded their unique Pax Lodge pins. Not all the team have been here before, and as this is one of the Girlguiding World Centres, it was a really special experience to do this with our Greek team members too.
We also had the incredibly exciting opportunity of recording a podcast for Girlguiding Scotland about our GOLD experience. All of the team members, both UK and Greek took part in this experience and thoroughly enjoyed embracing a new opportunity.'

'Whilst we were in Scotland we also ran an amazing and rewarding training session at the Edinburgh headquarters for adult leaders from all over Scotland.'
We learnt so much about Scottish guiding. They really embraced all of our activities as well as providing us with an amazing reception of traditional Scottish themed goodies.'
'Delivering successful trainings to adult volunteers was a key highlight for a couple of team members. Some of the team were a little apprehensive about delivering trainings on leadership for adult members, with more leadership experience than we had, but everyone was so welcoming and engaged fully in all of our activities.
One of my highlights was seeing how Greek guiding worked with boys in their units. We were lucky enough to have 2 Greek team members that were boys, and seeing how well they interacted with the rest of the team was amazing, and to hear their experiences of guiding as men was eye-opening. They both said that thanks to guiding they now have such strong and powerful female role models in their lives.'

What are the best things about international experiences like this?
'The best thing about international experiences is that you get to meet so many different people from different walks of life and make friends with people with a range of guiding experiences. You also learn about world guiding and WAGGGS member organisations in a fun and motivating way.
There are very few other instances where you would spend 3 weeks with people that you hadn’t met before, yet the people that we met on project were definitely a highlight for all of the team. We have all made some friends for life.'
We are all taking back so many skills and qualities into both our guiding lives, but also our personal lives from this experience.'
What advice do you have for members about getting involved in experiences like this?
'Our advice is go for it! Even if it feels nerve-wracking or scary or you have never done anything like that before, you never know, it might just be the best thing you have ever done.'

Want to have an international adventure?
If you fancy taking an international leap, at home or abroad, check out all the exciting opportunities you can take part in.