HARTMUN - Adam Tyebkhan

On an ordinary day when I was in year 7, a teacher came into my form class with an announcement. I had never seen her before and can barely even remember what she said. All I remember was that she said there was a club running every Tuesday afterschool, and that it was open for all year groups. A week later, my MUN career was kickstarted. 

Model United Nations, more commonly referred to as MUN, is an academic simulation of the United Nations where students play the role of delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real world issues with the policies and perspectives of their assigned countries. Students can be assigned a plethora of nations ranging from the United Kingdom to the United Arab Emirates. The same applies to topics that could be discussed. Anything from antibiotic resistance to cyber warfare, and even fictional scenarios such as the post-revolution governance in Panem following the conclusion of the final Hunger Games book were discussed at our conference. 

HARTMUN (our conference) started as an unlikely idea in February last year. Our MUN had only been up and running for 4 months prior, yet I thought “Why not take the leap, try to overachieve?” Compared to other schools in Dubai, we didn’t have a team with double-digit MUN experiences, or the legacy of past conferences and an established MUN club. But we had the drive, the desire and the commitment to pull off an incredible event. We were faced with countless challenges along the way. Getting a reply from other schools, getting sufficient signups to have enough students in each committee, and of course creating a realistic budget to cover the cost of catering, trophies and gavels among other items. We were even forced to postpone the event by a whole 2 months, shifting from our favourable end of November dates to a more competitive, initially inconvenient, January weekend. And after all of that, we were forced to cut 2 whole committees due to low delegate numbers a week before the conference. But still we persevered. 

We managed to pull of a successful event with 70 attendees from over 10 schools across the city and raised AED 10,800. Committee sessions were vibrant, extremely lively. Students engaged in controversial, yet engaging debates over the ethics of using Artificial Intelligence on the battlefield and the most effective methods to combat organised crime and drug trafficking. It also proved to be an incredible networking experience for all attendees, meeting like-minded students from across Dubai and forging lifelong friendships. But perhaps most importantly, students got an insight into the fragility of global politics, and the importance of diplomatic dialogue and cohesion in order to resolve volatile situations. They learned the importance of not only standing up for their respective nation’s policies but also compromising and fostering collaboration between nations. They were able to wipe away their fears of speaking in a public setting and become more confident in presenting ideas and engaging in thought-provoking discussions in groups of 10 or more individuals. 

None of this would have been possible without the help of my organising committee. A massive thank you to Adheeba Wani, Ema Sobek, Abeer Gasim, Alex Geroge, Aryan Rajagopal, Wayne D’Souza, Aryaa Gupta, Ghassan Aquel, Simrah Kazmi and Valentina Sbitany for helping me overcome impossible odds to pull off such a monumental event. But most importantly, to Ms Dalledonne and Ms Jones for their help throughout the entire experience. Their assistance was crucial to our success story. 

As we look ahead, we hope to have more and more students sign up to our club and be a part of this journey from nothing to something extraordinary. This event was a huge success, and I can’t wait to see how we will build on this success in the next instalment of HARTMUN.