International Chain of Awareness

I had joined the ICA a year before entering the IB program, and I was a member of it from outside the club, since my club times were devoted to MUN. In March 2008, I acted as the Committee Supervisor of the Gender Inequality Committee, which I had chaired a year before. We started the first day with ice-breakers, during which everyone in the committee warmed up to each other. I then explained how we had worked in the previous year, the actions that we had taken to raise awareness on the issue of gender inequality and women’s education. For the 3 days of the conference, I mostly acted as an observer who made regular reports to the organizing team on the committee’s progress, and also guided the committee members when they were debating and drawing up their action plan. They built on ideas that we had formed the previous year, and I discovered that there were aspects to the issues that we had not discussed earlier. I can say that even though I was there to teach the procedures and supervise, I learned a lot from the committee.
On the evening of the second day of the conference, we had a fundraiser concert, also under the umbrella of ICA. I was in the organizational team of the concert, and for me it was a completely new experience to help run a concert. I ran quite a lot that night, carrying items around, helping the school staff and making sure the concert ran smoothly.
Overall, I feel that I helped the world in a small way by raising awareness and by helping my friends raise awareness on issues that we need to overcome as a global community.