Success Story from Colombia - MUN 2016 Assembly UN HQ NYC - ONUANDES -Daniela María Cabrera Venegas
My name is Daniela María Cabrera Venegas and I'm from Bogotá, Colombia. At the United Ambassadors MUN 2016 I was part of the ONUANDES delegation, from the Universidad de los Andes. At the conference, I was in Committee E in which we were discussing how we could modify the MUNs in order to make the multilingual and more inclusive.
The United Ambassadors MUN 2016 has been probably one of the best experience I have ever had. It not just challenged me to think on new viable solutions, but also to understand the position of other delegates who - because of their social, economic and cultural contexts - had different concerns and priorities, than the ones that I had. For me, discussing about multilingualism in MUNs was very eye-opening because it showed me that there are many people who are being heard due to the fact that they don´t speak none of the official languages of the UN, or because they communicate through sign language -which is not an option on MUNs-. It was very inspiring to discuss how we can include different languages in order to move forward to MUNs that respond to the multiculturalism of the entire world. Fortunately, at the end all the hard work was worth it, now we have a resolution, product of the four days of work at the UN HQ, that we can implement in our own MUNs and make them better, and gradually modify them so no one is left behind.
My success story starts with the opportunity that my university gave me to go on representation of ONUANDES delegation at the United Ambassadors Youth Assembly. For me, it was a dream come true to be debating (one of the things that I love to do the most) at the UN HQ. This, since I deeply believe that the dialogue is the best way to solve conflicts; I disbelieve that war is a way of eliminating social, religious, policy, or any other kind of differences. On that sense, when I start debating at the Committee, it seemed to me that all the delegates had many valuable ideas, and I felt the need to incorporate all of them in our resolution, or at least, conciliate those ideas that were very dissimilar, because I really wanted that the concerns of the delegates were taking into account. To be honest, I never had into my plans to "show other delegates that I was ‘the outstanding’ delegate", I just debated with passion and with my heart, and I wanted the best for the Committee. However, on the last day at the General Assembly, the presidents of my Committee gave me the award for the "Best Ideas" and they said that I "have played an instrumental role, inspired other delegates, and had a great effect on the discussions". When I first heard my name I couldn't believe it, I felt very honored to be decorated with such recognition, and it encouraged me to keep working in my country to build the culture of dialogue, especially now that we have to work on the construction of peace and leave the armed conflict behind.
According to this, winning this recognition showed me that when we all work together towards the same goal, we can achieve huge things, with team work we are going to be able to implement our resolution in our own MUNs models, which will imply a huge progress on the benefit of all these conferences. So get ready because the success story of the INUANDES delegation is not finished yet, this is just the beginning of a new age for the MUNs.
