People and places
The GHAMUN Experience: Mutual learnings by exploring uncharted territory Rijul Gupta and Tomas Imparato look back on an innovative and exciting conference
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to invite them to GHAMUN 2019, but the Executive Team was in uncharted territory. There were constant back-and-forths before we finally came to the decision to take a chance and invite them. Nobody knew what to expect, and nobody could guess what would happen next. There being significant problems that the LCS Executive Team had to address regarding the funding of DUNK delegates’ participation in GHAMUN, there was undoubtedly a lot of anxiety regarding their invitation to the conference. After contacting them to ask if they would be willing to participate in our conference, to which they happily agreed, at least one of the aforementioned questions was answered: they WERE interested! On the day of the conference we were all nervous, and had a million questions in our heads. Would their computers work? Would they be embarrassed and regret coming? Should we have invited them earlier to give them more time to prepare? Most importantly, was this a bad idea? DUNK delegates went on to give us all a pleasant surprise. Committee chairs reported that their communication was clear, their points were well-researched, and they made positive contributions to debate, always intervening to provide a newer, and fresher, viewpoint on how to approach conflict. They were polite, highly attentive, spoke with the highest degree of formality, and certainly knew their facts! Now, we also know the answer to the other aforementioned question: they ARE good enough! We were truly amazed at how much we were missing out on by not inviting DUNK delegates to our conference. We decided that it would be a wise idea to contact the delegates from DUNK to discuss what they liked and what they thought could be improved about GHAMUN 2019. We were additionally interested to hear about some of their takeaways from the conference, the biggest one being that MUN debate isn’t two-sided like most debates are. Debate in MUN is usually of a highly multifaceted nature, with various sources of input for information, and for different viewpoints on a certain scenario which are all informed by research Autumn |
Spring
Lincoln Community School (LCS) located in Accra, Ghana, hosts an annual conference as part of its Model United Nations (MUN) club called the Ghana Model United Nations Conference (GHAMUN). This conference offers high-schoolers the opportunity to learn more about global affairs, diplomacy and negotiation, and to better empathise with the various social, economic, and infrastructural problems that are faced by communities all around the world. After the executive team of GHAMUN 2018 sat down to reflect on the 2018 conference, and discuss what went well and what didn’t, we realised that there were a few elements that we missed. It is stated clearly in the GHAMUN bylaws that we have been chartered to foster international-mindedness and global awareness; we encourage understanding and tolerance for different cultures, peoples, ideas and attitudes around the world through discussion and debate; we challenge each other about how to solve major global issues pertaining to nations and communities from different corners of the world; we embrace and promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and its commitment to peace, human rights and collective security. This was a gross situation of irony! We encourage understanding and tolerance for different cultures, peoples, ideas and attitudes around the world, and yet we only invited to GHAMUN students from international schools in Ghana and West Africa, and didn’t even think of reaching out to local institutions. Did we think they were not good enough? Or were they not interested? We didn’t even ask. We proceeded by reaching out to DUNK – which stands for Developing Unity, Nurturing Knowledge, a local initiative in Accra that works with underprivileged kids and young women. DUNK’s mission is to create a safe space for children and young women, and they do so by providing libraries and sport facilities. Through sports and education, they explore the programme’s five pillars: Teamwork, Leadership, Respect, Commitment, and Self-Esteem. It was clear that DUNK was doing locally what LCS MUN was trying to do globally, or at least on a larger scale. In principle, it seemed like a good idea
| 2019
