Ever since the idea was launched by King Abdullah in 2001, the project has undergone several stages, starting with rapid widespread endorsement of his call, to establishing Phase 1 of the ambitious world program in 2003, whose implementation encompassed troubled areas of the world such as Palestine, Bosnia, Herzegovina and other countries.
In 2006, the Saudi Scouts hosted 1500 scouts from 85 countries in Jubail Industrial City, adopting for this camp the slogan “Together for Peace”. At the time, King Abdullah’s call was answered by more than 10 million scouts from 110 countries within just 5 years.
The camp in Jubail was one of the presents given by scouts for promoting peace in response to the call of King Abdullah who – two years later – sponsored the World Scout Exhibition for Peace in 2008 in Riyadh as one of the World Scout Foundation’s events aimed at spreading the culture of peace. Riyadh was the Exhibition’s first stop before touring other countries’ capitals. During the Exhibition, the World Scout Foundation awarded King Abdullah the Baden-Powell Fellowship, in addition to membership in the Foundation, by its Honorary President the King of Sweden, in appreciation for King Abdullah’s efforts to support the world scout movement and reinforce international peace.
Since its idea was launched in 2001, the project became known as “Peace Gifts”. It was when the Scout Leaders Camp was held in Jeddah in 2011, which embodied both the spirit and content of King Abdullah’s idea, that the name “Messengers of Peace” was adopted.
Though the project had already achieved widespread response and great achievements in the 10 years since its idea was first launched by the “King of Humanity” and until 2011, King Abdullah’s ambition for the project remained as fervent as the day it was launched. The project developed more widely after the Scouts Leaders Camp in Jeddah titled “Messengers of Peace” and after King Abdullah’s generous grant to World Scout Foundation was announced. The grant of more than $37 million was given to the World Scout Foundation as an endowment whose revenues would be allocated to supporting peace reinforcement programs and training scout leaders on implementing such programs. These programs would in turn support scout associations’ programs in poor countries, qualify scout leaders, and organize and hold events in those countries through programs supervised by World Scout Foundation for 10 years until 2020.