By Farah Nanji, Former MUN Delegate from The American School of Kinshasa
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I am currently a freshman at UC Berkeley and attended the THIMUN Qatar conference in 2017 and 2016. I founded the Operation Smile Student Club in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo my sophomore year of high school. I had volunteered with Operation Smile years before the club was formed, but as it started growing its base in the DRCongo, the regional director reached out and encouraged the formation of a student club. I jumped with excitement at the idea of being able to help an organisation that I had seen literally put smiles on children’s faces. Given the opportunity to start the club, I reached out to my friends and other students at my high school who had similar interests.
We started by organising small scale fundraisers to raise awareness about the club and the NGO. At the end of the school year, we organised a large dinner gala for the expatriate community and government officials in the DRCongo, raising about $50,000 that year for the upcoming mission. The gala became an annual trend; we organised one in 2016 and 2017, improving the structure, entertainment, decorations, and organisation each time. Everything from making the brochures and tickets, to renting out the hall and calling photographers, to approaching companies to collect sponsorships was done by students while simultaneously balancing school work.
While my time with Operation Smile developed my professional development skills and taught me the importance of teamwork, it was most impactful in helping me learn about myself. Over the two and a half years I was president, I was able to realise that I am most passionate about international affairs, sustainable development, and working with children. I was also able to learn about my abilities as a leader, which developed over time through trial and error.
Looking back, my favourite part about the experience was that it wasn’t easy. The obstacles we were facing were not like the problems you face in a classroom where perhaps you didn’t do the reading for a class or didn’t know how to solve a math problem. Rather, we were dealing with real people so it really had an impact on the way I cope with stress in and outside of school. The more I became involved with Operation Smile, the more my love for international affairs grew because I was able to connect much of the health issues the Congo faces to the broader political problems associated with it. The experiences I gained also gave me the confidence to then become the Vice President of the Service Learning Club at my school junior year and MUN president my senior year.
Operation Smile helped me with MUN as I was able to practice my public speaking skills and teamwork skills. Guiding a team to host an event facilitated the process of combining resolutions and discussing issues with strangers at the THIMUN Conference. Additionally, the two worked hand in hand to help me find my passion and realize my strengths as a leader and personally. Overall, the skills I gained through Operation Smile were relevant in every part of my life and still help me today in university. The experience taught me how to multitask, organise large scale events, manage my time efficiently, and reflect; skills applicable and necessary for any career path and any minute task. Even today, as a college student, in the interviews I’ve had, I speak about Operation Smile because I attribute much of what I have learned about myself as a person, leader, and my passion to my experience with the student club.
