Minister Vukelic opened the 9th review of Croatian Scout Association

The minister recalled that the Ministry of Defence signed in June a Cooperation Agreement with the Croatian Scout Association. “The cooperation is defined in the Agreement and each year we will make arrangements on which areas we will cooperate and what MOD can do to help your programs and work”, Minister Vukelic said. The agreement allows the Croatian Scout Association use of certain military facilities as well as cooperation in different types of training.

The minister emphasized that the work of scouts was recognized and visible. “To hear that in this camp there are more than 200 volunteers is a big thing, as well as that you conduct activities across Croatia as volunteers and participate in humanitarian programs”, Vukelic said. Speaking of scouts, Minister stressed that their work was based on volunteerism and the will of those who were willing to work with youth. “It is certain that work with young people enables that some of them one day may decide to become soldiers. We are interested in it, but our support is not just because of that “, the Minister said, adding that it was exactly the scouts activities and their effort deserved the support of everyone including the Ministry of Defence. Vukelic emphasized that he was pleased that the Association decided for this location for their review in Vojnic municipality, which is an area of special state care. According to the President of the Croatian Scout Association Jasmin Celic, the review involved over 800 participants from Croatia and around 50 from abroad, and the program has been designed to meet the needs of children and young people and also to give participants an encouragement for their own personal development.

The review will address the problems such as nature conservation and the importance of sustainable development as well as affirmation of the volunteer work in serving the community. The organizer of the review is Croatian Scout Association which has 3483 members, mostly children and young people. According to the Association estimation, the number of scouts in Croatia is about five thousand. The opening ceremony of the 9th Scout review was attended by Zeljko Bacic, Director of State Geodetic Administration, Vesna Lendic Kasalo representative of the Government’s Office for Cooperation with NGOs, the President of the Council of Scout Organizations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bahrudin Fazlic, Mayor of Vojnic Branko Eremic, head of the Croatian Forests-Forest Management Area of Karlovac Zoran Sabljaric and a representative of the Karlovac County Zeljko Sancic.