16  High School students of the International School of  Alphaville had the opportunity to experience the environment that permeates the committees promoted by the United Nations Organization  (UNO) by participating in the V  FAAP Forum of Student Discussion,  which happened at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) between April 30 and May 3 and  counted with the participation of 394 students from several schools all over Brazil.
Acting as diplomats, students debated themes related to the international agenda such as climatic changes, religious tolerance and  military technology transfer, in simulations of committees such as UNDP (United Nations Development Program), UNSC (United Nations Security Council) and IMF (International Monetary Fund), in an experience of great pedagogic and personal value.
For the History teacher Marcela Cavallante, who helped students in the preparation and accompanied them during the four days of the event, the representatives of the International School had excellent performance.
“The four days were very intense; they loved the discussions, learned how to prepare arguments, took the position of the country they represented. Even when the position was hard to defend, they found arguments to debate diplomatically, since the forum is a faithful reproduction of the UNO committees.”
Those who represented the International School of Alphaville in the  V FAAP Forum were: Nina Lavezzo de Carvalho, Nathalia Rabello da Silva Sousa, Lucas Oliveira, Synara Régis, Danyella Sarzi, Thomaz Arruda, Maria Eduarda Rafael Gaidies, from High School 1, Murilo Costa Sousa and Chloe de Sordi, from High School 2, and Arthur Wellausen Monteiro, Maria Elisa de Almeida Goes, Janelso Sousa, Nathalia de Almeida Andrade, Gabriela Tizianel de Carvalho, Gustavo Rocha and Pedro Sarzi, from High School 3.
Many benefits derive from participating in a project like this one: development of oratory,  practicing  reading documents in several languages, capacity to argue and counter- argue, life experience and  learning skills to work in challenging situations, intuition to trace strategies, maturity to absorb the position of the country one is defending even when one disagrees with it, possibility to experience the environment of a university, and also the chance to meet dozens of people, in a healthy exchange of ideas and knowledge.
“It is a rich cultural environment which allows our students to develop abilities which  are impossible to work on in class, such as oratory, observation of manners and reactions ; it is also  an opportunity to experience a profession, in this case that of a diplomat”, highlights the teacher, Marcela.
The practical deliberations should also be mentioned, since, at the end of the discussions, all the material produced is sent to the UNDP, the organ which represents the UNO in Brazil, with headquarters in Brasilia .

Africa in focus

This year, one continent in special permeated the debates of all the committees of the FAAP Forum : Africa. Themes such as hunger, AIDS and the instability of African governments were discussed and solutions proposed, in an arsenal of ideas thought to reduce the problems which  have devastated  Africa for decades.
As delegate of Sudan in the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), committee which debated the question of refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the student Chloe de Sordi reports what she learned in depth about Africa. “There are refugees all over the continent, such as those from the Congo, who live in Chad, which is far from the Congo. Besides this, the refugee camps have awful conditions in terms of structure and hygiene, and generally only basic conditions for life to those who live in it.”
For the student Danyella Sarzi, who acted as delegate of  Cuba in UNDP (United Nations Development Program), the experience helped her to learn to speak in public. “Initially , I was nervous, but afterwards, I could express myself appropriately and formally, as necessary, attacking the USA, due to the economic embargo and defending Cuban foreign policy”, she reports. “I learned a lot, not only about  Cuba but also about the reality in other countries”, she completes.
Also integrating UNDP, but as delegate to  Sudan, the student Maria Eduarda Rafael Gaidies recalls the difficulties in representing the African country. “Sudan does not have public policies, and didn't even reach the 8 goals of the millennium; besides, it is complicated to defend a country which is in civil war.”
Another interesting aspect mentioned : as Sudan is an Islamic country, women there do not have the same rights as women in the Western world. Therefore, in order to be coherent with the position she occupied, Maria Eduarda had to assimilate concepts she was not familiar with, or did not agree with .
“What I most enjoyed was the debate about equal rights between genders,specially when I argued that the religious aspect is very important in Sudan, and that  people there think differently from us .It was hard to imagine myself in this culture, but it was easy to understand it”, completes the student, who intends to study International Affairs.
This, in fact, is an aspect to be highlighted: many of the students who already were inclined to follow a diplomatic career,  demonstrated even more certainty after taking part in the Forum  .
“Subjects such as nuclear power and treaties of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons interest me;I might study Foreign Affairs after finishing High School ”, reveals the student Gustavo Rocha, who acted as delegate to Iran in the DIS (First Committee for Disarmament and International Security), committee whose theme was the transfer of military technology. “At the end of discussions, we proposed the creation of a nuclear power  bank , through which any action of enrichment and sale of uranium would be subordinated, as a way to control countries which misuse this type of energy .”
The student Murilo Costa Sousa, delegate of Cuba in DIS, who was one of the chiefs of the delegation of the International School of  Alphaville, explains his function. “Besides taking part in the debates, I had to help all our delegation, and at the end of each event, meet with each group and evaluate the results they were achieving in the discussions .”
The student Arthur Wellausen Monteiro took the role of delegate to Sudan in DIS, and defended the country of accusations of genocide  arising from the civil war which at present devastates this which is the biggest African nation. In his evaluation, the experience was positive in two ways. “To have a general idea of the global situation and thus predict what can happen in the future; and as a direction to my career , since I am thinking of studying International Affairs .”
Delegate to Iran in PNUD, the student Thomaz Arruda viewed his participation in  FAAP Forum positively. “Learning to deal with people, leading debates, besides improving oratory”, he reflects. “I also learned that time is  interesting: 45 seconds to expose your ideas can be either a short or a long time, depending on the use you make of the time you have.”
The student Janelso Sousa participated in intense debates as delegate to Iran in UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council). He had to assume the position of the country in delicate topics such as the Holocaust: doing the same as Iran has already done, Janelso denied the genocide of Jews in the  World War II, provoking a strong reaction from the Israeli delegate.
“After the first answer given by the Israeli delegate, I was in control, but when she showed me pictures of the Holocaust, I was a little shaken”, explains the student, who on the next day had better results than her  “rival” in a discussion about prejudice. “She complained that Jews could not enter Iran, and I answered that when Israel treated the Palestinians with more respect, that would change. In fact, for me nothing makes sense anymore in the Middle East. Who has made bigger mistakes, the Jews or the Palestinians?  Both. It is impossible to judge;both have xenophobic attitudes towards the other. My view about this conflict has changed after the  Forum.”
Below, the committees which integrated the V  FAAP Forum and the topics debated in each:

First Committee of the General Assembly: Disarmament and International Security – DIS
Topic: Transfer of military technology

Human Rights Council – HRC
Topic: Religious Tolerance: East and West

United Nations Security Council – UNSC
Topic: Children in Armed Conflicts

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – UNHCR
Topic: The refugees of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

United Nations Development Program – UNDP
Topic: Development and Quality of Life: Enabling the structuring of Public Policies

United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP 15
Topic: Climate Changes and Human Development

International Monetary Fund – IMF
Dealing with crisis in the IMF

Council of the European Community – EU
Políticas Europeas de Inmigración (European  Immigration Policies)

Press Committee – Coverage of the activities of the Forum