UNAMET/ UN Introductory Event at North Campus

INTERESTED IN THE UNITED NATIONS OR THE WORLD HEALTH
ORGANIZATION?


What is the UNITED NATIONS for? What does UNAMET? What they are all about?

 All this questions and more brought curious Students to a cosy Introductory Event, Friday 25th March 2011, to the North Campus together. For everyone who was unable to join us to the Introductory Event....

.... and are still snoopy about UN, WTO and UNAMET here is a brief Summary of the Event:

At first, Plamena our Society President, started off with a brief history and explanation of the United Nations. Did you know that the headquarter is in New York, U.S. and that the UN was founded 1945 after World War II., to stop wars between countries and provide a platforms for dialogues!! Hence, their main goal and aim was and is the achievement of PEACE... although other issues are fundamental to the UN, such as Human Rights, International Security and social progresses. An impressive number of 192 member state are committed to the UN!! Further, Plamena listed the Principal organs, like the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, Secretariat and International Court of Justice.

 Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, introduced Plamena to the group... Moreover there are UN Agencies working closely with the Organisation. Magdalena, our Secretary of the UNAMET Society, talked then of these Agencies. The first she mentioned was the World Health Organisation (WHO), and what they do? For instance did you know that they coordinate international effort to control outbreaks of infectious diseases (e.g. SARS, malaria, Tuberculosis, swine flu, and AIDS) & worth of mention is that after over two decades of fighting smallpox, the WHO declared in 1980 that the disease had been eradicated - the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort!! 


The next point Magdalena presented was the Millennium Development Goals, in support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Goals are set to be achieved ...

...by 2015

Then we ended up the Introductory presentation by explaining what is UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) stands for! Foremost importantly long-term humanitarian and developmental assistant to children and mothers in developing countries. Magdalena concluded with the UNYSA-UK telling everyone that the UNA Youth and Students Association, are young people (school, college, University students in the UK) passionately agree with the work and ideals the UN do!! These brings together 40 Branches across the UK that regularly run their own events and campaigns. Its real fun and you meet amazing people along + its awarding work and good to build up your communications skills and professionalize your knowledge!! 

 If you want to know more please feel free to email us or you can also follow our facebook site:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=38641822142

munlodonmet@gmail.com

Yours UNAMET TEAM 

Human Trafficking Workshop – 12 March 2011

If you did not get a chance to participate in the Human Trafficking workshop, you can see here what we did…

The Workshop was run by the newly chosen President of the London Met MUN Society – Plamena Solakova. She has been a volunteer for the Red Cross for 6 years now and has participated in an international project for prevention of Human Trafficking. As part of that project she was certified to train on the issue and thus organized the whole event on Saturday and led some very interesting discussions.

In the event participated about 30 students from London Met and other universities in London and it took about 3 hours to complete the agenda for the day.

Firstly, we started with a basic introduction of each participant and a brainstorming on the topic of Human Trafficking. We also watched an introductory video which you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4xnWa1R2M.

In the main part of the workshop we talked about what can actually be trafficked. Interestingly we learn that humans are the second most tradable objects in the world after weapons. Furthermore, we looked at the different country categories that exist – source, transit and destination countries. Certainly, explanation was needed on why human trafficking occurs and statistics were given on the profits of this business. Later on, we played a toleration game which interested all of the participants and was very beneficial for our following discussions.

We also worked in groups coming up with the profiles of a victim of human trafficking and a potential trafficker. We discussed them together afterwards.

Other issues we discussed were how one can be recruited as a victim, how to recognize traffickers and what happens to victims after they leave and when they arrive in their destination countries.

In the end, we concluded with essential advice and tips on how to protect yourselves and who to contact for help. Remember: if you ever need help, please get in touch, if possible, with one of the following:

- The Police

-  International Organization for Migration

- UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office

- UK Human Trafficking Centre

- UK Home Office

- International Committee of the Red Cross: Departments for Refugees, Migrants and Asylum Seekers

-  Human Rights organizations worldwide

After the event, all of the participants received a certificate of attendance and also completed a feedback sheet. Gladly, almost 100% said the event was “great” and that they would certainly like to get involved more in the topic with prospects of organizing and participating in awareness campaigns against human trafficking.

If you interested further in the topic, you can also see these videos on the topic which are very thought-provoking:

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/10_human_trafficking_videos_to_watch_right_now (1st video), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTN0TbsRYA, http://vimeo.com/20771082.

Lastly, you can contact Plamena on the society’s email for more information on the topic and for further discussions.

Please come along to our next events as well in order not to miss the great experience UNAMET provides you with!