Girl Guides

Emerging from the pandemic of 2020, Bendemeer Guides were eager and hopeful that 2021 would be a year back to normalcy. Making the most of Safety Management Measures (SMM), our guides sought to conduct activities in person to gel the new Secondary One guides who joined us at the beginning of the year. Besides our usual programme of roll call, drills, physical training, and familiarising ourselves with the history of guiding, we tried to fun team-bonding incorporate games. Our Company hosted the Baden Powell (BPA) written test for the South Division schools. Two of our guides, Areefa and Shannon attended the first virtual WAGGGS Leadership Mindset Course in April.

In April, Secondary One and Two Bendemeer guides participated in an origami session using ‘ang pow’ packets to make fish and lanterns to decorate the Guides room and notice board. To make it more interesting, the guides had to vote which end products were deserving to be displayed. The girls found the session enjoyable and engaging. In order to further inject more fun activities into our programme, the girls cooked instant noodles in mess tins using solid fuel in an outdoor cooking activity which was well received. Getting the fire going required much patience and girls learnt to share and care for one another. Our Secondary One guides were led through a session of learning the Guide Law as part of their enrolment requirements. Guides worked on the Dental badge by researching on dental hygiene and well-being. Three of our guides enrolled in the Mental Health Advocacy Course – an important component for our current landscape.

Girl Guides orientation day

The highlight of the year was the South Division Day as our school hosted the virtual event on Zoom in May. We organised an origami competition for the Brownies whereby participants had to learn to fold origami hearts, dogs and after which they had to present these in a visual composition with an accompanying write up. The team of guides responsible to conduct the origami folding, pre-recorded the process and presented it during the session. Concurrently, our girls took part in various competitions such as the Warli drawing and the virtual escape room competition organised by other schools. Considering this was our first time conducting a virtual session, it was successfully completed thanks to everyone’s cooperation.

My first girl guide camp was very memorable. That was my first camp ever. I was so scared to go to the camp because I had never been in a uniformed group before. The camp was not only fun, it was life-changing. The camp was the first time I got to learn so many life skills like how to cook simple dishes with what we have, and build a shoe rack with just sticks and ropes.

The most important thing about the camp was that it motivated me to be a Girl Guide. During the camp, our seniors had to teach us about the Girl Guides history and the day and night taps. The way some of my seniors taught us inspired me to be a Guide. When our seniors explained to us about the guides uniform, it inspired me to be a guide even more. In the afternoons all of us would play and sing songs. During those times I really felt like a sense of belonging to the unit.

Towards the end of the year there was an activity where we had to sell cookies at a Fair Price supermarket located in the Tampines Hub. I was the only Secondary 1 student who volunteered for it. It was until that day that I realised that I can be so patient to sell cookies for 9 hours each day. After that whole activity I was so proud of myself.

This year I am in Secondary 3. I was appointed the Assistant Company leader for my CCA. To think that when I first came to Girl Guides, I wanted to quit and now I am the Assistant Company leader. In my three years in Girl Guides I have learned so many things about myself and gained a lot of self-confidence, I have learned how to be independent and learned that when we love what we do, we can achieve more than we think we can achieve. So far Girl Guides has really played a major role in my secondary school life.

- Areefa Begum (Assistant Company Leader)

As Company Leader of Girl Guides, the other leaders and I have conducted many meaningful and entertaining activities for our fellow guides every week, hoping that they will learn and benefit from the skills learnt. Apart from the joyous sessions that we have conducted, I have also taken part in many courses and events throughout my 4 years in Girl Guides. One interesting course I’ve participated in was the Gardens By the Bay Ambassador Course. My experience at Gardens by the Bay was definitely one to remember as I was given a limited amount of time to learn about different facts about the various types of flowers, and give tours to the public. Through the tour, I managed to boost my confidence and step out of my comfort zone to converse with the public. Other than that, this once in a lifetime opportunity allowed me to try things I’ve never done before. Girl Guides has provided me with many enjoyable times and the memories made will be hard to forget.

- Anne Yeo (Graduating Company Leader)

If you know me personally, you would find that I am quite a shy person. I would never go out of my house and mostly stayed at home like a molding troglodyte. So when the teachers- in- charge of Girl Guides selected me as the Commander Leader, you could imagine how much I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out of it, forever. However, I did realise that this was a precious opportunity presented to me. Of course, this comes with heavy responsibilities but I wanted to break out of my shell and experience new things. I know that I’m not the best at leading, but I am fortunate to have two Assistant Commander Leaders to lend me invaluable assistance and I enjoy working together with them. I am slowly but surely combating my reluctance to step out but my leadership position definitely helps me to reach out to more people.

- Yee Zihui (Company Leader)