An Interview with HELA - Model United Nations in Afghanistan, Mursal Saidal & Ema Wang.

Hope, Education & Leadership. This is what "HELA", a youth organization in Afghanistan aspiring to provide development opportunities for youth and promote peaceful progress in Afghanistan aims to do through Model United Nations.

Our Communications Associate for Asia, Ema Wang, reached out to Mursal, a member of the HELA team, for a personal interview. Below is the transcript.

Mursal Saidal, HELA

Ema: Would you like to share your MUN journey with us Mursal?

Mursal: My journey in MUN started from 2015 when for the first time I along with my four classmates in super English classes of Mr. Peter Dalglish head of UN habitat in Kabul got OMUN training for joining MUN conference in Qatar. Mr. Peter along with Ms. Lisa Martin (head of THIMUN Qatar) tried to get us to Qatar, to join THIMUN Qatar conference. We joined the conference, we came back to Afghanistan and we started our small club in very freezing days of winter, we worked harder day by day to register our small club as an organization in government and yes we did so in only six months after joining the MUN conference for first time, we named our organization HELA (Hope for Education and Leadership in Afghanistan) I get the chance to work as programs director in our organization, anyhow; we had so much improvements in only one year, we were able to train one delegation of 8 persons and join another THIMUN conference next year in Qatar, now we are planning to have our first HELA, AFMUN (Afghanistan Model United Nations) conference in Afghanistan it will be first official MUN conference in Afghanistan and we are happy to have Persian MUN too.

Ema: What motivated you to start HELA?

Mursal: When we saw that there aren't any MUN in Afghanistan so we thought let's do it!!! When you see your country in a worse political, economical, and social situation and see that no one wants to empower youth in societies, then you will definitely want to start doing such thing we all know that youth are the key to a developed and educated country, and Afghanistan needs such youth and HELA is exactly trying to do this (empowering youth). HELA is always happy and glad to serve our people and develop our beloved country.

Ema: How has everything been progressing so far?

Mursal: HELA has thankfully been progressing well, through the hard work of our team, and contributions of our advisers, supporters and friends, which we really really really appreciate"

Ema: What were the biggest challenges along the way?

Mursal: The biggest challenges we face that HELA faced were the security situation in Afghanistan, financial problems, the other challenges were the cultural thoughts and opinions of our people and also the gender problems.

Ema: What was your happiest/ most unforgettable moment along the way?

Mursal: The happiest moment for me was when I saw our delegation receiving their certificates on stage of THIMUN conference, it was the happiest and unforgettable moment for me when I saw that six months of our hard works paid off in front of hundreds of people, and I felt like “ Yes we succeed to show talents of young Afghan people to the world.”

Ema: What are your hopes for HELA and Afghanistan MUN in the near future?

Mursal: My hope and wish for HELA and AFMUN (Afghanistan Model United Nations) is to empower youth and to provide better opportunities for youth by international supporters and achieve the goals we have for upcoming years, and one of them is AFMUN conference in August.

Ema: Finally, how can our readers join in and help you out?

Mursal: If anyone wants to take part and help youth in Afghanistan through HELA they can certainly help us in different ways, like making donations, help locate scholarships & trainings for the HELA team or spread the word about our work to the public!

You can directly contact Mursal by email at: mursalsaidal8@gmail.com

or reach out to her on Facebook at: facebook.com/mursal.saidal

You can also find the HELA Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/HELA-860973317294022/

We thank Mursal for contacting our team and wish the HELA team the very best of success in their inspiring journey.

Interview by: Ema Wang;

Communications Associate for Asia, United Ambassadors Central Executive Team, 2016.