UK Scouts warns £1,000,000 cost of heatwave evacuation will hurt group for years
Britain’s Scout leaders say they’ve been set back years after stumping up more than £1 million to evacuate youngsters from a heatwave in South Korea.
Some 4,500 Scouts and adult volunteers travelled from the UK to Buan last week World Scout Jamboree, which brings together 40,000 Scouts from around the world and was supposed to go on for 12 days.
The British contingent and many others moved into hotels in Seoul over the weekend after hundreds of attendees fell ill from heat exhaustion amid 35°C temperatures.
Scouts UK suggested organisers failed to properly prepare for the ‘punishing heat’, adding that the group was ‘particularly concerned about sanitation and cleanliness of the toilets’.
In a statement, Scouts UK’s chief Matt Hyde, also raised worries around food and medical service, said: ‘We’re disappointed in the organisers and the organisation.’
He has since revealed the Scouts were forced to pay for the relocation from their ‘reserves’ and that this will impact activities back home.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hyde added: ‘We had commitments to those reserves that will of course mean that we can’t now do things that we wanted to do over the next three to five years.
‘We feel let down by the organisers because we repeatedly raised some of these concerns before we went, and during, and we were promised things were going to be put in place and they weren’t.”
Each Scout from the UK had to pay around £3,500 to attend the trip, with many relying on fundraising to make it.
They will continue on an alternate activities with help from the British Embassy including hikes, bus tours and cultural exchanges.
South Korean officials have since ordered a full evacuation of the vast campsite at Buan due to a looming typhoon.
Storm Khanun has already caused power cuts and forced evacuations on thousands of people in Japan and is expected to reach South Korea on Thursday.
The move came after the World Organisation for Scout Movements joined the UK and several other national delegations in requesting the closure of the site.
Local authorities say the event is ‘still continuing’ and are seeking alternative venues and accommodation in and around the capital.
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