We are catching up with Andrew Newman, AKA NEWMO, as he travels the world in search of the best, most IMPACTFUL MUN programs in the world. He shares his visit to MUN Bilbao, one of MUN Impact’s strongest partners! The original post can be found here.
The young women at Colegio Ayalde high school created the first MUN Impact partner club in Europe and I would say are one of the finest clubs in the world. Their list of current activities include, but are not limited to, monthly food collection for San Felicisimos Church, Beach cleanups, Holiday collection of toys and sweets for children, Fashion Show in Primary to collect clothes and interdisciplinary week activities. On top of all that, the club members organized one heck of an international MUN conference the last week of January dedicated to SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
One unique quality of MUN Bilbao was the Arctic Council, the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, Arctic indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues, in particular on issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. Anthony Speca is founder and director of NORMAC and MAC Bilbao, the world’s only secondary-school Model Arctic Council (MAC) conferences. He guided the room brilliantly. By playing the roles of delegates to the Arctic Council, pupils and students participating in these innovative experiential learning programs learn about the Arctic, its peoples and its challenges, and develop their skills in public speaking, negotiating and consensus building.
An added bonus to revisiting the amazing team in Bilbao was to reconnect with two amazing youth leaders in the MUN world.
I have known Kudzai for about five years, gaining more and more respect for him each and every time I see him. From his early beginnings as an Online MUN (O-MUN) participant to being its Director to leadership workshop presenter to, holy cow, being tweeted-out by the Secretary-General himself, to now serving along side this incredibly talented young man on the MUN Impact Executive Board. Want to add one more thing to that list of amazing talents…….see video below!!!! So proud to call this guy my friend
And then there is this guy named Wesley, a.k.a Chief Big Kid. That is literally his name on the Thirst Project website. Evan is the VP of Student Activation and Schoo Clubs Coordinator for a program that educates hundreds of thousands of students on the global water crisis. Seven hundred million people on this planet do not have access to safe drinking water. Evan’s presentations are powerful and electrifying. I can’t wait to join him in Eswatini in July to observe Thirst Project in action making sure all citizens in this African nation have safe drinking water.
Last but not least a huge thank you to Nicola Dignum, Director of MUN Bilbao, Board Member of MUN Impact, and English Teacher at Colegio Ayalde. What a pleasure it was seeing your program in action and to witness first hand all your hard work building MUN Impact in Spain. You have an incredibly confident group of young women who clearly have an inspirational role model before them. I can’t wait until our team is all together in Bilbao this summer for the MUN Impact leadership conference.