Fold of Hope, Paper of Peace
Fold of Hope, Paper of Peace. The Boys Scouts of the Philippines-Central Luzon Region held its First Regional Scout Venture Camp and Rover Moot 2023 last November 5-10, 2023 at BSP Camp, Palayan City, Nueva Ecija attended by over 4000 scouts and scout leaders all over the region.
I was assigned to the Betterworld Framework-Messengers of Peace as part of the Regional Service Team. In our base, I was tasked to teach how to make a paper crane. But before I instructed the scouts on the steps in folding the paper crane, I gave them the background story of this paper-folding. I tell them the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima, and eventually died from leukemia. This girl believed in the Japanese Legend that her wish would be granted if she made a thousand paper cranes. Her only wish is to get well and go home. When Sadako first realized how sick she was she had many thoughts and questions. She worried about her family, and if people would remember her. Sadako asked herself, “How can I make the world a better place while I’m still alive?” She wanted to leave the world a more peaceful place and shared those thoughts and feelings with her friends and family. Though Sadako did not know her impact on the world when she died, Sadako did make the world a better place because of her resiliency and the origami cranes that inspired her classmates and friends. Her story and the paper crane become an emblem of hope and peace.
The scouts and even their adult leader had the chance to make a paper crane. I demonstrate the steps in folding the crane. After they finish, they may write their wishes and prayer of peace in the crane and place it in the curtain crane hanging in our base.
It was a meaningful scouting experience, with just a simple activity of folding a paper crane I saw on the faces of scouts not only their enthusiasm to finish the activity but also their commitment to become messengers of peace.