By Venessa Anthony
The International Model United Nations Conference (TIMUN) is a game-changing Model United Nations (MUN) platform that has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
This conference is the brain child of Gulzar Ahmed, Shafni Nizam and Sarah Siham which has now evolved to become what TIMUN sessions are now.
Speaking to Under-Secretary-General of Public Relations Shihara Ferdinando, she stated that the TIMUN V Session will be happening from 5-7 February for the fifth consecutive time, and for the first time ever, it will be hosted virtually. Secretary-General for TIMUN V sessions Rashima de Silva added: “The online element we’re bringing into the conference is of most importance, I believe it’s the first-ever dedicated online platform for a MUN conference.”
Since their inception, they have strived to provide the youth of Sri Lanka with a recognized platform where they have the opportunity to voice their ideas. TIMUN strives to empower youth through active discussions and collaborative exercises in a solution-oriented simulation of the United Nations where delegates get the opportunity to tackle real-world issues. This gives young minds the rare opportunity to inculcate skills in research, writing, speaking, negotiation as well as learn about conflict resolution, peacebuilding and diplomacy. These skills are essential not only for professional or career development but also in day-to-day life.
Over the past four years, TIMUN has had over 300 delegates from leading schools and universities in Sri Lanka but for this year’s conference. TIMUN V Session will be all about innovation and they are expecting to host a virtual conference with nearly 200 delegates locally that are led by outstanding international chair people. De Silva noted, “We had some hiccups due to the COVID-19 situation; we initially wanted to run this on an international scale but understandably this could not be done on the same scale we had planned before.”
Their main objective and their vision for the conference is to provide a platform for collaboration amongst students and to work towards forming resolutions that would address current world issues. The central aim of TIMUN is to revolutionize the MUN experience into an international level conference and to provide students of the region and the world an in-depth knowledge on global problems and an understanding of the causes of international conflict to allow students to form diplomacy and a global perspective.
They also hope to shape their delegates to be compassionate and intelligent young leaders who will lead Sri Lanka towards a brighter future, in a way that will develop their skills in leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. De Silva stated, “This conference is going to be quite a cocktail of minds together trying to solve issues pertaining to a couple of matters of global importance.”
Ferdinando highlighted the importance of the conference to be the experience gained. She added further, touching on the speciality of the conference, “The whole virtual platform is something that we developed after investing a lot of time. It’s a completely virtual platform that we are using for this conference.” She encouraged everyone to be a part of this conference, as delegates will have opportunities to gain valuable experience, “Last year, for example, we partnered with Habitat for Humanity, where they learned the ground reality of the situation of those who are less fortunate.” Once the voluntary services are complete, they are provided with a certificate, which can be used to show experience in a variety of fields.
Visit: https://theinternationalmun.com/ for more information