Focusing on the importance of intensifying the scout movement, President Md Abdul Hamid on Sunday urged the scout leaders to utilise scouting activities to build the next generation as skilled human resources to lead the country's ongoing development progress.
“Scouting helps a learner to become a good citizen through training along with studies...Utilise scouting to serve the country and do humanitarian welfare acts,” the president said.
President Abdul Hamid, also the chief scout of Bangladesh, inaugurated the five-day "Third National Disaster Management Scout Camp" at Muktijoddha Abdul Haq Government College ground in Kishoreganj with the participation of about 1,500 scout members both from home and abroad.
The president said, “The national development will accelerate if the teachings of scouting can be reflected in personal, family and social lives.”
He said scouts must play a strong role in building a Bangladesh free of illiteracy, poverty and hunger.
The scout members would devote themselves to any need of the emergency, including natural calamities, as patriots and volunteers, the president hoped.
The head of the state appreciated the significant role played by the scouts in various social works as well as in dealing with natural disasters and doing humanitarian work.
He said scouting could make a positive contribution to keeping children and adolescents and youth safe and away from the poison of drugs, bigotry, sectarianism, terrorism and militancy.
Only scouting can make future generations modern, progressive and creative, the president observed.
Referring to the timely formulation and implementation of the government's plan to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041, he said, "As a result, Bangladesh has already graduated from a least developed country (LDC) to a developing country."
Although the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic has diminished, it is not over yet, Abdul Hamid said and advised everyone, including the scouts, to be aware of it.
He suggested the scouts uphold the spirit of Liberation War, patriotism, dutifulness and affection towards the country's people.
"Do good deeds for yourself and encourage others to do good deeds."
He hoped that these scouts would lead the country to build a hunger-free, developed and prosperous Bangladesh envisioned by the Father of the Nation by becoming competent and efficient in the days to come.
The president unveiled commemorative stamps on the occasion of the Third National Disaster Management Scout Camp.
Bangladesh Scouts President Md Abul Kalam Azad, Camp Chief and Chief National Commissioner Dr Md Mozammel Haque Khan and National Commissioner MM Fazlul Haque Arif also spoke on the occasion.
