The Office of the President of Ukraine held a meeting chaired by Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov to discuss the development and state support of the Plast scouting movement in Ukraine and around the world.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister of Education and Science Andrii Butenko, Minister of Youth and Sports Matvii Bidnyi, representatives of the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs, members of parliament, public figure Serhiy Prytula, and leaders of Plast, Ukraine’s national scouting organization.
The meeting was held on the instructions of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in furtherance of his initiative to provide state support for Plast and other patriotic organizations of this kind.
The main topic of discussion was state funding for the Plast movement to expand its opportunities to engage young people, as well as the development of the necessary infrastructure. According to the Head of Plast, Kseniia Dremliuzhenko, the organization currently has more than 12,000 members, including 9,000 children. Another 6,000 members are abroad, in 29 countries. At the same time, the number of people wishing to join Plast significantly exceeds the organization’s capacity. With state support, Plast plans to double its membership by 2035. By comparison, around 3% of the population in European countries belongs to scouting organizations.
“Our task is to ensure that by September 13 – the opening day of the Plast year – there is a presidential decree on the concept, a Cabinet of Ministers resolution on the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Award, and an order on the program to support the training of Plast educators,” Iryna Vereshchuk emphasized.
Minister of Education Andrii Butenko and Minister of Youth and Sports Matvii Bidnyi noted that there has so far been little experience of in-depth cooperation between Plast and the state, and that the proposed programs and concrete steps are pilot initiatives to begin such cooperation.
“The development of the Plast movement in Ukraine is an effective tool for shaping the national identity of our citizens, and we must make every effort to achieve this,” Kyrylo Budanov emphasized.