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President’s Letter We’ve had a busy Spring and many congratulations are due the many people who made so many events so successful. Starting with the most recent: congratulations to the winners of the 2010 UN Contest for High School Students: Bradli Crump, David McDonogh, Claire Johnson, Jordan Thomas, Sam Stargel, Reade Paterno, Sofia Haley, Katelyn Wittingham, Rachel Hainline, Marsha Sugana, and Young-Eun Hyun. Second, congratulations to the Ciompi Concert Committee for making the concert such a resounding (pun intended) success. The quartet performed brilliantly, the refreshments were delicious, and we raised over $4,300 for bednets! Third, congratulations to Björn Hennings, Tuck Green, and the UNO-UNC for their successful middle school Model UN conference. All the Chapel Hill and Carrboro middle-schools sent delegates and participated in the four model Security Council debates. I understand more such conferences are planned for the future. Finally, congratulations to Tuck Green and the other organizers of the successful Peacekeeping Workshop in February. Since this is our last newsletter until the Fall, best wishes for a happy and healthy summer. Personally, I am looking forward to celebrating my 80th birthday with an 80 mile bicycle ride, 80 push-ups and sit-ups. Wish me luck! (Pal has told us that he has already won gold medals in the shot-put and discus events at the recent Senior Games. –ed) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May Lunch and Learn to Examine Implications of Migration Post-WW II migration has been a pervasive international phenomenon that has shaped both the lives of the migrants themselves and the policies of the governments receiving and adjusting to them. The migrations have been both forced and voluntary, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has cared for and helped resettle some 30 million refugees and “Internally Displaced Persons”since 1945, including some 10.5 million still in refugee camps today. Professor Niklaus Steiner, the Director of UNC - Chapel Hill’s Center for Global Initiatives, himself a migrant, studies migration, refugees, nationalism and citizenship. He'll be speaking to our Lunch and Learn meeting in May about this important factor which has, in one way or another touched all of us and shaped the politics and relations of all countries. The meeting will take place on May 26 from Noon - 2 pm at Carolina Meadows on Whippoorwill Lane in Chapel Hill. Reservations should be made by check for $17.00 to "UNA-USA West Triangle Chapter," and sent to Barbara Rodbell, 404 Carolina Meadows Villa, Chapel Hill, NC 27517. The deadline for reservations is Friday May 21. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bed Nets Benefit From West Triangle Chapter Concert
The West
Triangle Chapter sponsored a
benefit concert in late March
featuring the Ciompi Quartet of
Duke University. The highly
successful event raised more
than $4,000 for the "Nothing
but Nets" campaign of the UN
Foundation to buy
insecticide-treated bed nets to
prevent mosquitoes from
spreading malaria in Africa. Although there have been some recent advances, there is no known cure for malaria, which kills about a million people a year in Africa, most of them children under five. That toll can be reduced sharply through the use of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets like those that will be made available with the proceeds from the concert. The nets prevent mosquitoes from reaching children during the night, when the insects are most active, making them a simple, low-cost way to save lives. This was the second successful humanitarian collaboration between the Chapter and the Quartet, the first being nine years ago to raise funds for clearing land mines in Mozambique and Afghanistan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education Outreach (The Model UN program was created by UNA-USA as a way to teach young people about the United Nations and the international issues the organization was established to address. In accordance with its mission to educate the public in our area, especially young people, about the United Nations, the West Triangle Chapter has fostered the development of Model UN (MUN) clubs in six area high schools and UNC and Duke universities. The chapter provides funds and other assistance to help them. Following is an “end of year” summary of representative activities of the clubs, as reported by them. –ed).
East
Chapel Hill High School Chapel Hill High School Attended the Appalachian State fall MUN conference with fifteen students and the Duke spring conference with fourteen students. Several students received awards. Three students ran sessions for the local Middle School MUN Conference. Raised funds and began planning for a more complex schedule of trips for next year. The school is starting up an AP (Advanced Placement) Comparative Government course which will likely expand the club and give students a course offering that could help them better understand international relations, at the college level.
UNC-Chapel
Hill
The high school conference sponsored by DUMUNC, which had twelve committees, attracted more than 500 high school students from all over the country,. Another “international crisis” conference, to which universities from the area were invited to come to Duke for the weekend was held in November . The traveling team competed at five conferences this year: University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Georgetown, UVA, and University of Chicago. They won numerous awards, ranging from Best Delegate to Commendations. Durham Academy Attended the Appalachian State MUN and DUMUNC ( Duke) Conferences. Early in the fall they also sponsored an informal in-house training Model UN with students from DA and Ravenscroft. They also took a couple of Middle School students to the recent middle school conference in Chapel Hill. Hillside High School, Durham Model UN advisors are working together to incorporate Model UN in the classroom, in World History and Advanced Placement Human Geography classes. Cedar Ridge High School, Hillsborough At Duke’s DUMUNC one student received an Honorable Mention as a member of "Obama's Cabinet." At UNC’s MUNCH two students earned Honorable Mention recognition as delegates to the European Union and Security Council respectively. We return next year with a small but dedicated group of Sophomores who we hope will form the foundation of a successful program at the school. If you would like to support this Committee’s work, please check off “Education Outreach” on the Lunch and Learn Registration form and send your donation in together with your Lunch fee. Suggestions? Please contact us at cgreen17@nc.rr.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapel Hill/Carrboro Middle School Model United Nations Conference
The first
Chapel Hill/Carrboro middle
school Model UN Conference took
place April 9. The conference
was organized by the presidents
of the
UNC-Chapel Hill Model UN club
in cooperation with the
West Triangle Chapter of the
United Nations Association (UNA),
the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City
Schools and the
UNC School of Education. The
conference was held in the
facilities of the Carolina
Center for Educational
Excellence (CCEE), which is
attached to Smith Middle School
in Chapel Hill. The students were divided into four groups - U.N. Security Councils - of 30 students each. Within each group, pairs of students were assigned to represent one of the fifteen countries currently constituting the U.N. Security Council. During the months preceding the conference, each pair of students researched the United Nations and “their” country's geography, history, culture, economy, and politics. Each pair of students was also required to prepare a short paper describing their country's position toward Iran's nuclear development plans.
Each
of the four "Security Councils"
was overseen by a committee of
three persons who coached the
middle school students on
matters of parliamentary
procedure, caucusing, resolution
writing, and voting. The
committee members were drawn
from officers of the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro High School MUN
clubs, the UNC Model UN club
and the Board of the West
Triangle Chapter. UNC Model UN Club Co-President Dominic Dascoli provided certificates for best, superior and honorable mention performances by teams in each of the four "Security Councils." U.N. pins were given to members of the oversight committees by the UNA West Triangle Chapter. The organizers and sponsors of the Conference have already decided to make it an annual event. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West Triangle Chapter Has New Interns As part of its effort to bring to chapter members the most complete coverage of chapter and United Nations related news, The West Triangle World has added a student interns to its “staff.” Our first intern, for 2009-10, was Janet Bartholdson, a student at Duke University who, as chapter members will have noted, authored monthly articles on a variety of subjects. But, as happens with students, Janet, unfortunately for us, graduates in May, and so we’ve lost her. Chapter members who attended the March Lunch and Learn meeting will recall our farewell to her (she’s now going to teach for two years in the Chicago schools under the “Teach for America” program). But our experiment with Janet showed us that having an intern work with us is a feasible proposition, so we advertised at both UNC and Duke for a successor. We “struck it rich,” and received two applications - one each from UNC and Duke, and were so impressed with them that we asked both to join us for 2010-11. Both are, by coincidence, Rising Sophomores, so if things work out, they could be with us for two years. One, Simone Lewis, is at Duke (chapter members who were at the April L&L will have seen her there). She’ll be taking over from Janet as “Editorial Intern” with responsibilities for writing news articles about the United Nations, and a monthly report of the talks of our speakers. The other intern, Amanda Conklin from UNC, will have the title “Communications Outreach Intern” and will help us to expand our communications capabilities to both our members and the general public through the use of online social media (Facebook, Twitter, a chapter blog, etc.), thereby allowing us to better educate the people living in the West Triangle about the United Nations. Amanda has written a separate article in this issue about herself and what we hope, through her, to accomplish. We hope chapter members find the expanded communications services we’re planning to provide useful and interesting. We’d appreciate receiving any feedback you’d care to give us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Community Outreach Initiative This fall, the West Triangle Chapter of the UNA will be launching an initiative to involve more community members, especially younger ones, in the Chapter’s events through online social media. This project will be headed up by the new Communications Outreach Intern, Amanda Conklin. Amanda is a rising sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill. She is majoring in International Studies with a focus in Asia and politics and is also actively involved with the United Nations Organization on her campus. She will be utilizing social websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to invite community members to UNA events and UN related events and to disperse information about this Chapter in particular to a wider audience. She will also maintain a new Chapter blog providing frequent updates about United Nations and international news and Chapter events. By utilizing different types of media, the Chapter will be able to reach a diverse audience and educate more community members about the UN and potentially attract new Chapter members. Any feedback or ideas about this initiative can be emailed to aconklin@email.unc.edu or conklin.am@gmail.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Children’s Health Initiative
Reactivated Hospitals and clinics throughout the developing world are desperately short of medical supplies and equipment they need to treat the poor, primarily rural, people they serve. At the same time, every year, US hospitals throw away millions of dollars worth of unused medical supplies. The supplies are still valuable, but no longer used in the United States due to technological change, regulatory requirements or procedural excess. In recognition of this sad dichotomy, the West Triangle chapter undertook, in 2003, a modest program designed to identify medical facilities in developing countries and transfer to them the equipment and supplies they need.. In collaboration with UNC’s MEDWorld, an all-volunteer organization in UNC Hospitals that collects and recycles unused medical supplies that would otherwise be discarded, and with some modest financial donations from chapter members, we were able to facilitate the transfer of a wide variety of such items to hospitals and clinics in four African and Asian countries. Unfortunately, because of administrative changes at the hospital, we had to suspend the project. However, under the leadership of new Board member Greg Flood, the project has now been revitalized. About 50 cu.ft of medical supplies (gauze wraps, IV solution, band-aids, splints, test tubes, vacutainers, cotton swabs, pipettes, etc.) was sent to the Visitation Hospital Foundation in Tennessee, for onward shipment to its “Visitation Clinic” in Haiti. The Clinic is currently treating approximately 90 patients per day. Its staff includes 28 Haitian employees, making it the largest employer in the area. The Clinic, which we’ve assisted previously, provides a laboratory, pharmacy, and digital radiography services, electronic medical records, plus a full array of community health and outreach programs. We hope to be able to identify other such facilities to assist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Have A Good Summer This month’s issue of The West Triangle World is the last one of the 2009 - 2010 academic year. We’ll resume in September, following our usual summer break. We hope chapter members have enjoyed what we’ve produced, and found it useful as we pursue our joint effort to follow for ourselves, and educate our friends and neighbors in the Triangle about, developments in the United Nations. We wish you a good summer and look forward to seeing you at our first Lunch and Learn meeting following our break, on September 22. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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