By Neil Udassi and Nada Haddad
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This year, we set out with the goal of transforming our ASD MUN club from an advocacy group into an activist organization. Our delegates come together to debate some of the world’s most pressing issues, yet, we, ourselves, do little to effectuate the change we so passionately advocate for. It simply isn’t enough to debate these issues when we can play an active role in contributing to their resolve. This vision garnered support from both our faculty advisors and students members who, too, saw it as a means of bringing to fruition the solutions we avidly debate. Our club’s leadership decided to pursue a service initiative in hopes of doing our part to support positive development in the MENA region and set up a sustainable system that may continually support such projects now and into the foreseeable future.
Our efforts were put towards supporting HELA – a youth non-governmental organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan that focuses on providing opportunity for underprivileged but ambitious students in the field of International Affairs through Model United Nations. The HELA story, their work against the forces of war, corruption, poverty, and terrorism in Afghanistan to create a meaningful change within their communities, has served as an inspiration to us all.
Our club’s goal for this year was to sponsoring the passage of a full delegation of HELA students to THIMUN Qatar – the 3rd largest MUN conference in the world. We did, however, encounter an unprecedented challenge: the current GCC crisis. The Saudi led blockade against Qatar restricted air routes and thus left our service group with tripled ticket price to subsidize. We had to reevaluate our plan of action from bringing in monetary contributions through student led workshops and conferences to contacting corporations, airlines, parent-groups, and private-donors in hopes of raising the sufficient funds. Working with external groups was a challenge in itself, as the US embassy had to sanction which organizations we could work with. Nevertheless, after many written proposals, presentations, meetings, negotiations, and emails, $19,500 was secured to bring a full delegation in January thanks to contributions from ASD’s Parent-Teacher Association and Arab Mothers Association, MyGym, Jazz Cafe, Turkish Airlines and Nakheel Landscapes.