A total of 12 Ghanaian students drawn from the country’s tertiary institutions has won four awards at the just ended prestigious Harvard University National Model United Nations (MUN) Conference in Boston, USA.
The conference involves students from universities across the world simulating the activities of the United Nations.
At the end of the highly competitive engagement moderated by some renowned University Professors and UN Experts, the Ghanaian delegation were crowned victors in four categories.
It is the fourth year running for Ghana’s participation in the conference organized by the Harvard University’s Resolution Project and Resolution Social Venture Challenge.
Ghana’s delegation, led by the Executive Director of Life-Link Friendship Schools Ghana, Mr Ernest Gyimah-Danquah included was drawn from four tertiary institutions; the University of Ghana, University of Mines and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
They were selected to represent Ghana after emerging winners in a local contest held in Accra last year under the auspices of Life-Link Friendship Schools Ghana.
The student delegation constituted themselves into two project teams; Team Eureka, represented by Kobby Afari-Yeboah, Harriet Adare and Hilary Adare, worked on a social venture aimed at creating awareness and promoting advocacy on child dyslexia and professed supports for the funding and training of identified dyslexics in underprivileged schools in Ghana.
Team “Explore a New Language” on the other hand, led by Rejoice Dufie explored an initiative of an Edukidz Language Center. The project aims at promoting language education in the lives of children especially orphans.
Executive Director of Life-Link Friendship Schools Ghana, Mr Ernest Gyimah-Danquah told newsmen the five-day event offered a critical thinking platform for participating students.
“It has always been the critical learning curve for our students who are determined to do things differently to bring change to their societies and environments using workable and sustainable approaches”, he said.
Founded in 1955, Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) is the largest, oldest, and most prestigious of the Model UN Conferences held in major locations around the world. Staffed entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, HNMUN brings over 3,000 students and faculty together from colleges and universities around the world to simulate the activities of the United Nations. HNMUN offers a unique opportunity to experience the challenges of international negotiation and diplomacy.
The Resolution Project is a non-profit dedicated to fostering youth leadership development around the world through collaborative social entrepreneurship while the Resolution Social Venture Challenge allows undergraduate students to build teams and submit their plans for an actual social venture that will make positive impact
The delegation later paid a courtesy call on Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Martha Pobee who congratulated the team for bringing honor to the nation.
She urged the awardees to continue to explore innovative means to address key national challenges, reminding them that HNMUN serves as a platform for innovation and a space to build relationships for students with a truly global array of perspectives.
The awardees pledged their commitment to work harder to develop the country.
Every year, Life Link Friendship Schools Ghana, organizes series of Model UN programs for Junior and Senior High Schools as well as Tertiary institutions to train future diplomats, teaching them about global issues, negotiation skills, leadership and crisis resolution.
