New York 2007
5th
Year students David Doyle and Shane Lauritsch from Oatlands
College, accompanied by their teacher Mr. Brian Kehoe, traveled
to New York on 10th November as part of a group of
twelve students and two teachers from six schools in the Dublin
area, to lobby the United Nations on the commitments given in
the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).
Before our trip to
New York the group met with Fine Gael leader Mr. Enda Kenny T.D.
and their spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Mr. Billy Timmons T.D.
to discuss the opposition’s ideas on the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG’s)
We also met with the
Minister of State for Overseas Development, Mr. Michael Kitt T.D.
who gave a presentation on the governments work in the area of
overseas aid.
On a visit to Concern
offices in New York, Operations Manager, Mr. Dominic Mac Sorely
gave a presentation on Concerns work in Sudan, The Congo, and
Pakistan. After which he received a copy of our Millennium
Development Goals (MDG's) lobby document.
David Doyle with Mr.
Dominic Mac Sorely and Ms. Delia Dunlap. Education Officer with
Concern.
One of the many
highlights of the week was our trip to 3 New York City schools.
Workshops in Saint Vincent Ferrer High School consisted of Irish
and American students working in groups to research, identify
and present solutions for some of the
MDG’s.
On Wednesday we presented and shared ideas on
the MDG’s with students from Columbia Prep High School. The
culmination of the weeks work with these schools was a
multi-school MDG workshop where students from both countries
identified MDG priorities and wrote a proposal to present to the
UN.
A major priority for
the week was our trip to the Irish permanent Mission to the UN
in New York. Here we presented our lobby document to the Irish
representatives, who gave us details on the political structure
of the UN and also gave us the opportunity to debate on why the
MDG’s are not being fully implemented.
A student presentation of both documents to
H.E. Mr. Igor Dzundev (Ambassador
/ Chef de Cabinet to the office of the president) of the UN took
place on Friday.
Irish and
American students outside the UN
The week was
punctuated with visits to several societies and organisations in
New York City. These included the Global Action Youth Network,
UNICEF, IEARN and YouthCan.
We were also lucky
enough to visit some of New York’s amazing landmarks. These
included the Rockefeller Centre, Central Park, Madison Square
Garden, the Tenement museum, the Irish famine memorial, the WTC
visitor centre and the American museum of Natural History.
