1st AFC Scouts Group 1.98

Al-Falah Islamic Centre is the meeting place for the first Muslim Scout group in western GTA. Since October 2009, 1st AFC Scout Group has been meeting every Tuestday evening to learn outdoor, leadership and team building skills in a fun, hands-on manner.

The group is now in its Fourth year and has two youth sections: Scouts (age 11-14), and Cub Scouts (age 8-10)

Scouting and the Muslim Youth Scouting is an international youth movement started in 1907, and today comprises more than 28 million youth and adults in 160 countries and territories worldwide, including many Muslim-majority countries.

In Canada alone, more than 100,000 members, including Volunteers and youth participate in Scouting Programs. Scouts Canada is the nation’s premier youth-serving organization.What programs can we offer Muslim youth?
How should we prepare our youth to become contributing members of society?
Which program does not sideline the importance of religion and spirituality in our daily lives?

These were some of the questions addressed by the pioneers of this initiative at the Al-Falah Centre. Scouting offers successful, well designed programs to engage our youth. In fact, Scouting’s three main principles are immediately familiar to any Muslim: “duty to God, duty to others and duty to self.” It’s mission is to “contribute to the education of young people... to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals, and play a constructive role in society.”

Scouting helps achieve these goals by building a wide range of skills in the youth in a fun and challenging environment. Some of the activities and skills taught include camping, hiking, tree planting, orienteering, community work, first aid skills, outdoor cooking, survival skills, skating, tobogganing, praying, nest building, team-building, discipline, learning respect and tolerance, disability awareness, building friendships, community work and much more.