Sophomores Deciding the Fate of Afghanistan, MUN

Maddie Tharp, Mia Macon, Animas Quill

Rustling papers, low voices, and banging gavels: the tell-tale signs of a United Nations
conference, except that this conference was being run by the sophomore class of Animas High
School. The topic that the Animas Model United Nations gathered to discuss was the growing
Afghanistan humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by the recent pull out of US forces
and the complete take over from the Taliban, causing over 23 million afghans to face starvation,
crippling their economy, and completely abolishing any human rights of women and girls. The
delegates first gave their speeches at the podium, each one was extremely well written with
deep critical thinking and powerful emotion. The students, guided by the chairs, whose job it is
to moderate the conference, navigated their way through multiple caucuses where the students
could debate with each other, gather allies, and write their resolutions and amendments. The
students could then give speeches to defend the resolutions they had written and further
debate.

Parents, teachers, and fellow students sat in the viewing gallery to watch the amazing brain
power of the sophomores as they decided on how to solve the extremely difficult, multifaceted
problem.Sophomore Humanities teacher Lori Fisher commented. “ I was really impressed with
the sophistication of the speeches and the positions the delegates took. They sounded like real
UN delegates. I'm also really impressed by the active diplomacy that some delegates took to
develop consensus and cooperation.” For two months Lori led the students through the in and
outs of the intergovernmental organization and made sure to equip the students with the
knowledge they would need to run their own United Nations conference. FIlled with background
knowledge, history, and rule books, this project gave a chance for the young adults of Animas
High School to have a more intimate insight on the workings of other countries.

After even more debate and discussion, the delegates finally had written about 3 resolutions
and spoken on them. Finally, the moment all the delegates had waited for: the voting that would
decide on the resolution that could solve the entire situation. With a 17 to 3 vote resolution, the
third proposed resolution was passed, written by Hudson Curry (Afghanistan), Joe Dalsaso
(China), and Zoell Lhomi (Russia). The main actions that the resolution called for the US (Finn
Brunner) to take accountability for the decline of the quality of life in Afghanistan. They called for
the US and other countries to unfreeze Afghanistan assets and to provide food, medicine, and
other supplies for the next five years. In return, the Taliban would give women more rights and
accept them back into workplaces.

The next day, Tuesday, March 1st, Lori’s P.M. Pod came together for their final MUN
conference. The conference took around 5 hours and during such, the students engaged in
conversation, caucasus, and debates. While this group did not end up passing a resolution, the
skills learned in the process were valuable to all and all could walk away with an insightful
experience.
Sophomore delegate(A.M pod), Illyria Brunner (Iran) explained, “The MUN project got me more
involved with the world around me, it got me more connected to the people around me. It was
just really cool that this group of people that may not agree about anything got together to
create a solution to help other people. It was really amazing.”

The students were still abuzz after the conferences were adjourned, and the conversations
about current events and world politics continued independently among the students. Many of
them even expressed their wish to do another conference about the current happenings in
Ukraine, though with the time constraints it couldn't be done, however that did not diminish the
new world perspective each of these students now have.