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| Tents are set up under a shaded pathway during the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Friday. Courtesy of Latin American IST volunteer |
By Jon Dunbar
Parents from more than 150 countries who sent their teenage children to Korea for the World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) are now wondering whether they misplaced their trust in the country, with its troubled safety record. Now the whole world is watching the news of this debacle coming out of Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province.
But complaints have been coming out since as early as July 27 when adult volunteers from foreign countries started arriving at the vast sunbaked site, a location that has the world's longest man-made dike, measuring 33 kilometers, resulting in a huge land reclamation project that has been years in the making.
"It's just very disappointing how the Korean Scouts worked so hard to portray their organizing of the event as a potential success and hyping it to be a great and innovative Jamboree," one International Service Team (IST) volunteer, traveling with a delegation from a Latin American country, told The Korea Times on Tuesday. "The reality is that it has been a complete mismanagement and safety hazard for young people and the adult volunteers on site already."
On July 31, three of 300 IST adult volunteers collapsed due to the heat, according to a document written by volunteers on site and shared with The Korea Times. "If one percent of the Jamboree collapses every day there will be around 7,700 injuries by the end of the Jamboree just due to heat," the volunteers claimed.
The following day saw more than 400 heat-related illnesses, according to the organizing committee. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions from this data, as the actual number of participants on site on Tuesday remains unknown. While it was widely reported that all 43,000 Scouts visiting the country were present, the actual number was likely much smaller.
As of Tuesday, only four of the total 17 camping zones were fully ready to receive participants, while nine were partially ready and another four were unusable. Major contingents including those from the U.S. and U.K. delayed their arrival in order to provide time for the organizers to prepare the campsites. Many also had to relocate to other camping plots.
Much of the land had been flooded, looking like, as one British Scout put it, "Shrek's swamp," due to the recent heavy rainfall.
"We were all upset and really unhappy," the Scout said. "We did not fundraise in the hot summer sun, rain and wind for over two years just for that; to go into some flooded campground."
"While the site has ok drainage that can remove water in about a day from most places there are places that do not drain at all," the volunteers said in the document. "If there is more than one hour of heavy rain it is likely that the site will be completely underwater. Even when not raining the ground is muddy and waterlogged everywhere, it smells."
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| This map distributed Aug. 1 by adult volunteers shows the status of camping zones for the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province. Only four of 17 sites are marked as usable. Courtesy of International Service Team volunteers |
Pallets were distributed for participants to set up their tents on so as to stay out of the water. But even a shortage of tents was reported, and on Monday night some people had to sleep on top of picnic tables, out in the open where bugs could bite them all night.
The flooding also exacerbated other problems, such as moving around on site. Most people resorted to walking on the roads, which were the easiest routes between various sites and were most likely to be dry. "This creates problems between buses, cars, heavy vehicles and golf carts that must navigate around the pedestrians," the volunteers said. "Shuttles do not go to the island with camp HQ on it. This makes it very difficult to get to the Jamboree hospital, which is a safety issue."
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| Participants at the World Scout Jamboree walk close to vehicle traffic at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, last Thursday, in this provided by an adult volunteer. "People would walk on the road because it was dry and stable," the volunteer said on condition of anonymity. Courtesy of Latin American IST volunteer |
The water has since drained away and evaporated in the extreme heat, but the document listed myriad other complaints that have since made global headlines. These include inadequate food and bathroom facilities, poor transportation infrastructure and unreliable shuttle bus services, and environmental conditions such as heat and humidity as well as insects.
Other complaints were also raised, including the lack of barriers separating the camps of Scouts and adult volunteers. "These are very big problems as keeping kids safe from abuse is something all staff members were trained on and the rules are impossible to enforce effectively without separation and identification," the volunteers said in the document.
Another issue at that time was the lack of health support ― both mental and physical.
"I had a heat stroke and a panic attack at the same time and went unconscious," an IST volunteer from a northern nation said. "A day later I started to experience the same thing again only to find that the medical tent was closed."
"I haven't seen so many people crying, emotionally collapsing and having mental health issues so quickly in a camp," the Latin American IST volunteer said on Tuesday. "I'm at a point that I'm considering leaving the Jamboree. Quite a few adult volunteers have done that already."
He added that he had been told to refrain from posting complaints online. "There's a sort of media blackout about the negative aspects of the event," he said. "We have been asked to not post on social media about the flooding and hot weather."
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| A sign on the front door to a medical facility at the World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, announces its closure. Courtesy of anonymous adult volunteer |
By Wednesday, the situation hadn't improved much.
"Many contingents arrived in the morning and they have to put up their tents in the heat of midday. The U.K. volunteer staff were asked to go and help the young people and some couldn't finish because of the heat," the volunteer said on that day.
The volunteers were carefully watching the weather forecast, which has been showing the possibility of rainfall in the second week. "We had a contingent meeting today to discuss an evacuation plan in case the site floods completely and what support our embassy can do," the IST volunteer said.
Tuesday night was the opening ceremony, which included a visit by President Yoon Suk Yeol. It was reported that between 83 and 108 attendees required medical attention during this event.
"Opening ceremony is something you would think they would put a lot of effort on, but it was yet another disaster to add to the list," the volunteer said. "Throughout the ceremony, the paramedics kept coming in every couple of minutes to pick up people and take them to the ambulances."
"The opening ceremony was a big security catastrophe," said a Scout visiting from Germany, aged 18. "The one road where everyone has to leave was also the road that was used by the emergency vehicles. At the end of the show we got the information from our head of contingent that we shouldn't leave because of how many people had to leave via one small road. We then stayed in the arena for about an hour and when we then left it still was pretty full."
The Latin American volunteer added that a member of the medical team told him later that night that they were at full capacity, and they had not received much of the equipment that had been requested and advertised.
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| Garbage is piled up at the World Scout Jamboree in Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province, Thursday. Courtesy of German Scout |
Following the opening ceremony, the many failures at this event became undeniable, and the media switched from promotional events celebrating the opening to highlighting the problems. The grim reality faced by participants and volunteers already there finally started to become known.
By the time it was reported on Friday night that the U.K. contingent was leaving, the Latin American volunteer said "it was a cascade of negativity coming out and no damage control could help."
On Saturday, he saw reporters crowded at the camp entrance as well as other members of the public coming by to take pictures.
"I was wearing my Jamboree shirt and everyday Koreans knew about what was happening," he said. "Some locals I spoke to…were very apologetic about our experience and the disaster that the Jamboree was, and that hopefully we don't have a negative image of South Korea and Korean people. There's a wave of online support from the Korean people, all apologizing for the bad experience."
He expects many questions to be raised, especially at the World Scout Conference planned for next year. "This will be a case study of how not to organize a Scout event and will be talked about for years to come," he said.
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