Essex Scouts International Jamboree 2024, United Kingdom

Braeside Scouts (Lavington and Thika) together with Crawford, Peponi House, German School, Brook House Runda and Our Lady of Mercy School South B scouts and leaders left for Essex, England on 24th July 2024 to participate in the Essex International Jamboree from Saturday, 27th July to Saturday 3rd August 2024 to represent Kenya.

The trip was organised by The Westlands Scouts Local Association and the Kenya Scouts Association together with ISSK schools. The Theme of the jamboree was “Celebrating Girl Guiding and Scouting.” The international camp was held at Boyton Cross, Chelmsford, Essex and over 6,500 scouts and 2,000 adults from all over the world participated.

At the jamboree, there was a wide range of activities. Such as cultural and food festivals, water activities, talent shows, carnival fair, flag ceremonies, high ropes, drumming, Art, Crafts, STEM and Friendship activities such as badge, scarf and t-shirts swapping and many more just to mention but a few.

Evening Activities Included

• House of music – Barn Dance
• Neon night
• Live music on the main stage
• Cinema
• Circus
• Campfire

Kenya scouts association sent a contingent of 62 participants; 48 scouts and 14 leaders. Braeside Lavington sent 8 Chipukizi (Year 7s) and 4 year 5 (Sungura) scouts who participated.

For the Pre and Post jamboree, scouts stayed at Screen Park Activity Scouts centre, and had a chance to visit Chelmsford city and spent a day in London. A big thank you to the scouts parents for making this trip a great success. Below are writeups from the students on their experiences during the trip.

When we all arrived at Essex, I was so excited to make new friends. A scout girl gave me a bracelet and I felt welcome. Everyone was so nice to me. The food was so good and I loved marking pegs for friendship. Everything was great. Zenna I.

My trip to Essex International Jamboree was fun. It’s surprisingly a very big place. The Jamboree is a big camp where scouts and girl guides come together and camp in one place. In our Kenyan group there were two schools; Braeside Lavington and Braeside Thika.

Some scouts had such nice uniforms. The leader of the Jamboree made us to do a fun thing, you make pegs and switch with people. That helped me interact and make friends which I was so proud of I had fun at the Jamboree and hope I will be able to participate again in the next one coming after 4 years. Alakara A.

The Essex Interantional Jamboree was fun. There were so many scouts from differnt places. I learnt that you have to make the best out of what you have; when I did not have a Kenyan outfit to wear, my teacher and I made one using a Maasai shuka. Jasmine V.