During the month of May, the students of Al-Iman school were granted the privilege to be chosen amongst the many schools across the globe to participate in the 2006 Model U.N. Conference. The opening ceremony was addressed by Mr. Yan Eliason, President UN General Assembly and Mr. Russell Simmons.
This marked the third year that Al-Iman was chosen for this prestigious event and many of our bright, young students were excited and ready to meet the challenges that would arise as they played ambassadors to the countries of Yemen and Iceland in different committees, such as the International Atomic Agency (IAEA).
The 18th of May was our first day of the Model U.N - it was a long day but needless to say, it was full of excitement. We arrived at the Grand Hyatt hotel at 11 P.M and were quickly introduced to our guides. It was definitely long and at first confusing but turned out to be no problem for the Al-Iman students. After we were briefed as to how the whole process works, we were all treated to lunch by our Advisor.
Following lunch, we made our first visit to the United Nations where we attended the opening ceremony. We heard a speech from the President of the U.N. General Assembly Mr. Yan Eliason, who highlighted, “Iraq and Iran" as "places of conflict." Perhaps the most rewarding speech came from Mr. Russell Simmons, the Guest speaker, who highlighted how the UN was wrong in assuming that the problems in Darfur was "Muslims killing Christians," then they found out that the area "was dominantly Muslims." Also, they said that "Arabs were violating women," but it "turned out that the Arabs there were black Arabs and those committing the crimes were non-Arabs." Mr. Russell Simmons left the young Model UN students with one main advice, "be critical, think for yourselves, and don't let them fool you." This marked the end of day one, but it was the beginning of a whole new experience for many of our students in what was to come in the following two days.
The next day on the 19th of May, we went straight to the Grand Hyatt hotel for a mock U.N. trial (the same kind of simulation that Brother Sayyed was trying to do at Al-Iman School) where we met with other delegates from different countries and interacted with them to come up with resolutions for the problems that our countries were facing. We went through the process of drafting different resolutions throughout this day until we had reached lunch where we were given a short break to take a rest from all the hard work we were doing. When we returned from our lunch break, we spoke some more about our resolutions and how we wanted them to help our countries in all possible ways. Soon after, all the resolutions were getting their finishing touches so that they would either be passed or declined on the final day. With that, the second day had come to an end.
The final day of the Model U.N., on the 20th of May, we went straight to the United Nations where we were given the opportunity once again to be in an actual conference room and were asked to vote in favor of or against certain resolutions, debate over what was right and what was wrong, and share more ideas with our fellow delegates on what should be added to the resolutions and what should be left out for the better cause. We then placed all the resolutions with the Chair and from there they were all voted on. Many resolutions were written but only a few were passed and fortunately, each delegate from Al-Iman was able to pass his or her resolution which is a great accomplishment considering that despite the fact that this was the first Model U.N. experience for most of our students, they were still able to succeed and achieve more than the students who have had past experience with such a project.
After the resolutions were passed, the day had come to a close and we found ourselves back in the General Assembly Hall (the "GA") where the closing ceremonies had begun. This marked the end of three remarkable days where the lives of all our 23 student participants had been greatly influenced. We all interacted with numerous, talented students from many different parts of the globe, were able to learn how a real delegate goes about in his or her everyday life, and most of all we learnt more about our world and the different situations each and every country is in and how we, as envoys can help to resolve those problems.
Our students at Al-Iman School are already looking forward to next year, 2007, so we may return and represent the different countries of the world and be a part of this great event once again. We hope this time we will take advantage of our experience there, listen to brother Sayyed about doing a simulation at the School before we actually go, work harder to prepare information based on possible resolutions, develop our debating and speaking skills and represent not just Al Iman School but Islam, as Islamic Ambassadors. TEAM AL-IMAN!
