UN SDG Action Campaign

Millennium Campaign Hosts Screening of Clouds Over Sidra for Woodside Intermediate School 125 in Queens

Syrian native and presenter Sinan watches Clouds Over Sidra before event

On 12 November Date, the UNMC and UN Visitors Center co-hosted a special workshop on refugees with eighth graders from the Woodside Intermediate School 125. Following a screening of Clouds Over Sidra, three young refugees in various statuses in their legal application processes spoke to the students about their personal experiences.

The workshop was a part of the Teen Thursdays Program, a collaboration between the NYC Mayor’s Office, NYC Department of Education and the UN Department of Public Information’s Visitors Center. During an 8 week program, seventh and eighth grade students participate in workshops and tours at the UN to learn about and become engaged in the UN’s mission. This screening of Clouds Over Sidra was the first in a planned sequence of of workshops in partnership with the program. The Millennium Campaign hopes to further expand the program so Virtual Reality can be used as an educational tool in informing young people about critical issues underlined in the SDGs.

Clouds Over Sidra is the story of a 12 year old girl, Sidra, who is a Syrian living in the Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan. The experience gave the students a glimpse into the daily life of Sidra: her favorite subjects in school, her family, her hopes for the future, and her desire to leave Za’atari and the Syrian conflict behind. Many of these students were the same age as Sidra at the time of filming.

The eighth graders were joined by three young students from Salve Regina College: Sinan, Karma, and Uma who told their experiences as refugees seeking asylum from Syria and Nepal respectively. Sinan explained how the Syrian war interrupted his studies and how the United States presented the opportunity to finish them. Karma was in the US when the Earthquake struck Nepal, and now she is seeking temporary asylum. Uma’s family were originally refugees from Bhutan. Her heartfelt story touched on how the UN helped her family through tough living conditions in a Nepalese refugee camp, and guided them through asylum application in the US.

Students from Woodside Intermediate School 125 watch *Clouds Over Sidra*

The response from the children showed a maturity beyond their age. One student stated: “It’s really heartbreaking listening to [the stories of the Sidra and the other presenters] because, we worry about having the newest game when many people are worried about getting food to eat”. This is especially poignant as many of the students knew little about the Syrian conflict or other important issues underlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prior to the workshop.

Clouds Over Sidra and Virtual Reality experiences like it were designed to support the Millennium Campaign’s efforts to draw attention to some of the world’s greatest challenges, allowing people living through them to tell their stories in their own words. Previously, the vast majority of screenings had been directed towards decision makers, many of whom are involved in the international community. This screening was considered pilot testing to find the best practices in using Virtual reality as a learning tool in the classroom.

Nepal Doubles Amount of Votes in One Week, Reaching almost 30,000

During the MY World Global Week of Action (May 5-11, 2014) the adolescent and youth organization Yuwalaya coordinated with the UN Resident Coordinator Office of Nepal and various other youth organizations and schools to raise awareness and votes in Nepal. Through their joint efforts, they were able to collect more than 15,000 votes – doubling the amount from the previous year.

Yuwalaya coordinated with more than 50 youths from various colleges and youth clubs of Kathmandu to do the survey. The volunteers were honored by the United Nations Nepal Resident Coordinator’s Office at the UN House in Lalitpur on Tuesday, 17 June for their contribution to the survey.

Continue reading “Nepal Doubles Amount of Votes in One Week, Reaching almost 30,000”

Yuwalaya and UN Nepal unite to increase votes

The UN in Nepal has teamed up with Yuwalaya, a youth led NGO that has been organizing advocacy events on post-2015 agenda at various schools and universities in Kathmandu as well as working with volunteers to collect offline ballots throughout Nepal. To support the MY World Global Week of Action 5-11 May, Yuwalaya organized several student workshops. Yuwalaya and the youth organizations they worked with set the goal of reaching a total 20,000 votes for Nepal.

This post was compiled and edited based on original blog and facebook entries by Yuwalaya and co-founder, Mr. Sanjog Thakuri, who has been actively involved in collecting the voices of children, adolescents and youth in the post-2015 development agenda process and in supporting the My World initiative in Nepal.

The UN in Nepal has teamed up with Yuwalaya, a youth led NGO that has been organizing advocacy events on the post-2015 agenda at various schools and universities in Kathmandu as well as working with volunteers to collect offline ballots throughout Nepal. To support the MY World Global Week of Action 5-11 May, Yuwalaya organized several student workshops.

According to Nepal’s 2011 Census, there are roughly 9.2 million children aged 0-14 who make up 35% of the total population, and 7.36 million youth aged 15-29 who are 27.82% of the total population. When the Global Week of Action began, there were roughly 13,000 votes from Nepal on the MY World Survey. Yuwalaya and the youth organizations they worked with have set the goal of reaching a total of 20,000 votes in Nepal.

To support the Global Week of Action, Yuwalaya organized three workshops in participation with colleges and youth organizations. In each session, Mr. Thakuri began by explaining the Millennium Development Goals and presenting the various ways that youth can participate and get involved in the development of the future post-2015 agendas, including via the MY World Global Week of Action. He stressed the importance of youth having a voice in global issues, especially since many were not aware of the impact the global development agenda will have on their lives. He shared the present statistics and priorities of people from Nepal based on My World data. The youth and adolescent participants agreed to mobilize their communities to collect more votes.

During the first session on 5 May, 34 youths studying their first and second years of Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at Classic College participated in the orientation. The school distributed 1500 ballots to further more vote collection. Continue reading “Yuwalaya and UN Nepal unite to increase votes”