On February 8-9, 2020, Marianopolis College hosted its annual Model UN conference, MariMUN. MariMUN’s goal is to encourage students to participate in debates and increase their awareness surrounding world issues, all while building their self-confidence and public speaking skills.
Every year, MariMUN chooses a non-profit organization to donate to and MariMUN’s 2020 edition decided to donate to the SeeChange Initiative. We chose SeeChange because we wanted to support a Canadian non-profit organization that helps Indigenous communities, who despite the many inequalities that they face, are drastically underrepresented in the media.
During the Opening Ceremonies, Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, Executive Director of SeeChange, spoke about the organization. Her speech was thought-provoking and engaging, and all of the students enjoyed hearing her touching anecdotes and important lessons. During the conference, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback about Rachel’s speech, and many delegates remarked that she was the most compelling keynote speaker at the MariMUN Opening Ceremonies to date.
We raised money by selling chocolate bars and by asking each committee for donations. To encourage everyone to donate, the prize for the committee that donated the most was that they were able to throw a pie in one of their staffer’s face. Funnily enough, the committee that ended up winning the prize was the one where students were representing delegates from the House of Commons to discuss Indigenous and Northern Affairs!
SeeChange was an amazing organization to work with and we hope that their mission is a success!
Photo byMariMUN
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