Student Voices: Model UN Conference Participants Discuss Child Soliders, Migrant Workers

Pulitzer Center New Media Strategist Maura Youngman presented the work of Pulitzer Center grantees to delegates of the United Nations Association's Global Classrooms Model United Nations Conference May 1 at the US Department of State. Jesse Hardman's project on Burmese migrant workers in Thailand offered students a look inside the Thai fishing industry, and Marcus Bleasdale and Joe Bavier's multimedia project, "One Voice, One Thousand Children" illuminated the voice of a former child soldier of the Lord's Resistance Army. The delegates were middle school students from the DC area, as well as Nigeria and Ghana.

Students were invited to share their reflections. A student from the UNHCR committee, which discussed the human rights of migrant workers, wrote, "I would tell the world this about migrant workers if I could only tell one thing. Migrant workers usually do not want to leave their own country, but have to, and are often forced to stay for the rest of their lives." Additional student reflections can be viewed in the above slide show.

Supported by the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area in cooperation with the United Nations Association of the United States, the conference was staffed with policy advisers from the US Department of State, USAID and DC area universities.

Read more about the conference at the Washington Examiner.