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AWARD-WINNING schoolboy Yannis Panagis has his eyes on the stars and feet firmly on the ground as he prepares to help host one of the biggest Model United Nations events ever staged in the kingdom.
The British School of Bahrain (BSB) head boy is secretary general of BritMUN IV which is likely to attract 500 students from 28 schools next month.
It will be staged at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence & Spa for the first time this year to accommodate the growing number of residential participants as alongside 200 students from local schools, delegates will also be arriving from neighbouring Gulf States, India, the US, South America and Europe.
Yannis, 17, is leading a team of 20 BSB students involved in the project, and said: “We have been planning BritMUN for almost a year now and are excited to see the result of the first truly international, residential and entirely student-run conference in Bahrain.
“Everything from the website to the council topics and organisation is the product of purely voluntary student work, and I am proud to work alongside such an enthusiastic and dedicated team.”
The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Engineering, Science and Technology in the Context of an International Community’ and will explore the implications that they have to shape geopolitical relationships between countries and political perspectives.
A unique aspect of the event is BritMUN IV’s partnership with the Georgetown International Relations Association (GIRA) of Georgetown University, which hosts NAIMUN, the preeminent Model United Nations conference in North America, the educational simulation and academic competition in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations and the United Nations.
Yannis attended the last two NAIMUN events in Washington DC, picking up the ‘Outstanding Delegate’ accolade in both 2015 and 2016.
“Representing my school in these conferences, I was part of the team that helped to put Bahrain on Washington’s map,” he proudly said and talks about the partnership that subsequently evolved. “This year’s conference, BritMUN IV, is the first of what will hopefully be a long collaboration of conferences in the future,” he added.
The GIRA’s chairman and CEO Matthew Robinson and a team of US university experts will be attending the Bahrain conference and offering guidance.
The event was launched last week at a press conference staged at BSB in Hamala attended by the school’s board chairman Rashad Janahi, head of school Julie Anne Gilbert, Katy Brand, head of juniors, Khalil Ahmed, head of secondary school, and Shakeel Sheikh, the school’s NUM director. Yannis and Shouq Majali, 17, BritMUN IV’s head of administration, also spoke to journalists about the plans.
Ever since its inception, BritMUN has remained an entirely non-profit enterprise and each year has dedicated its efforts to supporting different charitable organisations. Last year’s conference raised $4,000 for Diya Pakistan. This included enough funds to build an entire school in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan and further the education of the students attending it.
The subject of this year’s philanthropic project is the Migrants Workers Protection Society (MWPS), and BritMUN’s goal is to raise awareness about the challenges faced by migrant workers and alleviate some of these difficulties through donations.
Senior staff members believe the event helps develop debating, literacy and negotiating skills, all valuable attributes as pupils move from school, to university and on to the world of work and attendees potentially become the global leaders of tomorrow.
There will also be an opportunity to ‘show off Bahrain as much as possible’ with a series of cultural visits on the agenda after the sessions.
This year’s BritMUN topics range from unmanned systems for the future of war in the Disarmament and International Security Committee to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission to Mars.
The serious talking takes place on October 20-22.
