OPERATIONS
GIMUN’s operations are on these three pillars;
- Education
- Advocacy
- Charity
Education
GIMUN wants to offer a platform where young people will be given some training towards their career and also fulfill their full potential. Through conferences, simulations, mentoring, and exchange programs, they acquire new skills and opportunities which makes them better. They begin to understand issues better and develop an interest in resolving issues around them. The relevance of grooming the leaders of tomorrow’s world can never be emphasized enough and this is perfectly captured in a well-known African proverb which says that “If corn eyes would grow big, it starts at germination”. If the youth of today are next in line to steer the affairs of our world tomorrow, then their journey to successful leadership starts today, not tomorrow. This can only be achieved through the right training of the youth in global issues and no other body, than the United Nations offers the stage for the discussion of issues affecting the globe – from north to south, east to west. It is very important that the capacity of young people is built so that when they get the opportunity to lead nations and international bodies, they can serve their people better. Capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit individuals and institutions from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results. It can also be viewed by a conscious effort in ensuring that innate potential for growth, development, or accomplishment is achieved. The measures put in place to ensure that people fully make use of the power given them by their maker to the benefit of themselves and others is what capacity development players like GIMUN considers.
Capacity development often focuses on strengthening the skills, competencies and abilities of people and communities to exercise their rights and responsibilities and improve their lives and communities through advocacy, negotiation and cooperative action.
It is therefore in the right direction, that Model United Nations are organized across the globe to offer the youth the opportunity to play roles as ambassadors from United Nation states to debate on current global issues on the United Nation’s agenda and to ultimately cultivate the prerequisite skills to develop the world in which we live for the better. The GIMUN is one of the many MUN groups across the globe.Through the annual Ghana International Model United Nations Conference, participants from almost twenty countries mostly in Africa gather to acquire diplomatic skills in research, public speaking, writing and reading, lobbying, negotiations and dressing. Steps are being taken to ensure our conferences are accessible to all people from diverse socio-economic background. Many regional conferences are being planned. Formation of Model UN Clubs in schools are also being encouraged.
Another platform we are providing our young people is the GIMUN Educational Exchange Programme(GEEP) which connects our participants to other MUNs and programs in other parts of Africa, Europe, Asia and USA. We want young people to get connected so that they can learn from each other. This will let them understand other people’s culture and become more tolerant. Change in environment sometimes widens the person’s scope of ideas. More and better ideas are acquired and this better the life of individuals.
Mentoring is another opportunity GIMUN wouldn’t want young people to miss. Through the National Advisory and Mentorship Engagement Scheme (NAMES), we want to bridge the gap between the young people and the experienced in the society. Central to the purpose of NAMES is providing an avenue where the experienced and young people in the community will be paired so that each other will be impacted positively. GIMUN Team understands and shares in the word of the popular TV host Oprah Winfrey which say“I think mentors are important and I don’t think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship. Nobody makes it alone. Nobody has made it alone. And we are all mentors to people even when we don’t know it”. So through this scheme, we wish to foster the growth and development of high quality mentoring programs for young people in our communities by providing a national and sometimes international base of collaboration, support, guidance and expertise.
Several Modules are developed under the scheme.
Advocacy
GIMUN Advocacy was established to give a voice to the marginalized groups in our societies to tell their story, claim their rights and create the social change we all strive to achieve.
We identify sensitive and important human right issues in our societies, conduct research to ascertain the cause, consequence, the way forward and run campaigns aimed at putting these issues in the spot light just as the UN does through its agencies like UNESCO, UNHCR etc.
Through our campaigns, we advocate for human rights, justice, equality and gender balance, better living conditions, safe environmental practices and a vibrant democracy in line with our mission to champion the promotion of the ideals and principles of the UN system as relevant to the people of the world.
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
― Elie Wiesel
We want to be the loud and sensitive voice which will challenge the negative status quo. By engaging stakeholders and drawing their attention to the issues; through meeting the Press; and sometimes taking legal actions can change many things around us. Maybe, someone’s life will be saved by what we champion for those who sometimes feel marginalized and afraid to speak up.
Charity
GIMUN Care is the name of the main charity project of the GIMUN Team.We do believe that the UN we are modeling is the biggest charitable organization in the world. Through their agencies like UNHCR and UNHRC the UN has brought hope to many vulnerable people. Their timely interventions have saved lives. The less privileged have gained access to opportunities they wouldn’t have got. As models, it is very important we try as much as possible to do same in our own small way to put smiles on the faces of people whose hope are built on us. In our communities, we meet people whose situations need immediate attention. For the long term, our advocacy team will push for proper systems and structures for the less privileged. But at a point when those people are in dire need, we need to immediately handle through the GIMUN Care. We take steps to mitigate the challenges people face in much neglected societies.