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• Welham boys MUN 2018 @ Dehradun Pathways School Noida
  
  September 2

We recently participated in the Welham boys MUN 2018 which was held from 29th August to the 1st of September in Dehradun.

The Model United Nations (MUN) is a simulation of the United Nations. The goal of the United Nations is to maintain peace and stability in the global community and strive for a better tomorrow. The UN consists of various committees such as The United Nations General Assembly and The United Nations Security Council, each committee has different motives and goals which they hope to achieve through discussion and negotiations.

In this edition of the WELMUN' 18 the theme of the conference was "Pangea La Reunion". Our school was given 2 allocations, one allocation was in the Disarmament and International Security Council (DISEC), and the other allocation was in the Special Political and Decolonization committee (SPECPOL). Paarth Kohli was a part of DISEC and was the Delegate of Japan. Gautam and I were a part of SPECPOL as a double delegation and we were the Delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The debate at this MUN was highly challenging and saw participation from many prestigious schools from across the country. Through this MUN, we were able to gain an immense amount of knowledge. We now have become better "diplomats" and are looking forward to going to many more MUNs to enhance our knowledge and gain more experience to combat various problems that may persist in the forthcoming future.

It wasn't just the debating that furthered our learning, but interacting with other schools was in itself an enlightening experience. Over the 3-day conference, we conversed with students of many schools, but one of the most memorable experiences was talking to a student from Srinagar. While asking about the committee sessions, conversation moved to her home state of Kashmir, where she talked about the hardships that she faces everyday due to the Indo-Pak conflict. The conflict affects them severely. It often prevents them from going to school, and due to the influence of media they face many hardships. She also told me about a famous painting, where the artist made a tree whose leaves were made of grenades and guns, and under that tree was a child - a child living under the influence of war since the day he was born and who will be under the influence of war till the day he dies.

This interaction showed me a whole different perspective of the Indo-Pak conflict. It opened my eyes to how innocent people are severely impacted due to conflict between two countries. Before this, I only knew about the people affected by conflict through online research, but now I got the opportunity to learn what it really is like from a first person's perspective.

Coming back to conference proceedings, I am proud to say that Paarth Kohli was able to win the Honorary Mention amongst the 32 delegates in his committee, DISEC. Also, Gautam and I received the Verbal Mention award amongst 60 fellow delegates in our committee, SPECPOL. We were extremely happy to represent our school at this stage, and we look forward to doing the same at other conferences this year. Through this MUN, all of us were able to understand that winning awards isn't the end goal of the conference, but enhancing our learning to become better individuals is what we should strive for.

• Siddhant Garg, 10-A