미지센터의 청소년 국제교류이야기

서울시가 주최하고 서울시립청소년문화교류센터가 주관하는

제3회 서울유스포럼 "community. reimagined" 오픈포럼 참가자를 모집합니다.

더불어 살아가는 공동체를 꿈꾸는 청년들이 새로운 조건 속의 도시환경과 이 사회를 바꾸어가는
고맙고 귀한 사회적 가치들을 공유하고 더 나은 도시 청년의 삶을 고민하는 시간을 가질 예정입니다.

새로운 공동체, 경계 없는 새로운 상상, 더불어 사는 삶, 사회혁신, 세계시민 등에 관심 있는 청년 여러분의 많은 참여 부탁드립니다.

포럼 진행 일자 : 2018년 9월 6일(목) 13:00~17:40

참가신청 : https://goo.gl/cWqHao

UNGO 진로 여행의 밤 - 9월 활동 스케치

"Africa Insight 허성용 멘토", 민낯의 Africa를 보여주다! 

2013년 9월의 넷째 목요일에 열린 UNGO 진로 여행의 밤, 그 아홉번 째 시간! 

조금은 쌀쌀해진 가을 날씨 속에서도 UNGO의 밤은 뜨거웠습니다. 

바로 아프리카 인사이트 대표님, 허성용 멘토의 이야기 때문이었는데요.

열심히만 했던 대학생활의 끝에 '과연 왜?' 라는 물음에 답을 구하기 위해 아프리카로 떠났던 여정을 생생히 들려주셨습니다. 

본격적인 이야기에 앞서 허성용 대표님은 국제 자원 활동에 대한 자신만의 정의와 함께 '모두가 꼭 거창한 동기, 이유만으로 떠나지는 않는다.' 라는 솔직담백한 멘트로 강연을 시작하셨습니다. 

강연 도중에 보여주신 아프리카의 영상과 사진들, 그리고 여태껏 알지 못했던 아프리카의 모습을 보며

그간 우리도 모르게 가지게 된 편견과 오해를 깰 수 있었고, 중간중간 아프리카에 관한 깜짝 퀴즈까지 내주셔서(게다가 선물까지 주셔서!) 강의에 더 몰입할 수 있었습니다. 

"도전 앞에서 걱정을 내려놓지 않으면, 더 큰 세상을 보지 못한다." 

진심이 느껴지는 말들이었습니다. 멘토님 역시 아프리카를 모른 상태로 떠나 무지와 편견 속에서 접했지만, 다양한 국제 NGO와 국제기구 인턴십을 하면서 아프리카를 사랑하게 되셨다고 하셨습니다. 

또한 NGO와 국제기구의 차이점을 설명해주시는 등 멘토님이 직접 겪으셨던 분야와 기구의 전반적인 이해에 도움을 주셨습니다.

점점 UNGO의 밤은 뜨거워만 갑니다.

많은 청춘들이 자신의 진로에 대해서, 꿈에 대해서 치열하게 고민하고 있기 때문이겠지요.

미지는 언제나 여러분을 응원하겠습니다.

* 10월에도 UNGO 진로 여행의 밤은 계속됩니다! 많은 관심과 지원 부탁드려요 :)

UNGO 진로 여행의 밤 - 5월에도 계속됩니다!

매월 넷째 주 목요일 저녁,

멘토와의 따뜻하고 풍요로운 시간을 보내며 나만의 길을 그리고 있는 미지 청소년들 :)

5월에는 World Bank Group(세계은행)에서의 일과 삶에 대해 이야기해볼까 합니다!

World Bank Group의 컨설턴트로 근무를 하셨고, 현재는 대한상공회의소 지속가능경영원에서 연구원으로 재직 중인 여원석 멘토님과의 만남! (훈남이시죠?) 

아마 지난 2012년에 한국계 김용 총재님이 취임하신 덕분에 다들 세계은행에 대해 한 번쯤은 들어보셨을텐데요, ‘국제부흥개발은행(International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD)'이라는 또 다른 명칭에서 알 수 있듯 세계은행은 1946년, 세계대전 후 전쟁의 잔해를 복구하고 각국의 경제부흥 및 개발을 촉진하기 위한 목적으로 설립된 기관입니다. 현재에는 주로 개발도상국의 개발을 위한 자금을 주로 지원하고 있으며, 세계 경제 및 개별 국가에 필요한 정책 자문 등의 역할도 담당하고 있습니다.

대한민국은 1955년 가입 이후 꾸준히 역할을 확대하여 오늘날에는 전체 188개 가입국 중 22위 규모의 출자금 및 그에 해당하는 만큼의 영향력(표결권)을 갖게 되었다고 하는데요-

앞으로 우리나라가 성장하고 발전함에 따라 점차 대한민국의 역할과 영향력이 확대될 세계은행에서 내가 잘 할 수 있는 일이 무엇일지, 어떻게 하면 그 일을 할 수 있을지, 궁금하지 않으신가요?

꼭 세계은행이 아니더라도, 전 세계 경제의 건강하고 지속가능한 발전을 위해 내가 하고 싶은 일을 찾아보고 싶거나, 혹은,  국제기구에서 내 꿈을 더 크게 키워나갈 방법이 궁금하지는 않으신가요?

그런 여러분을 위해 여원석 멘토님께서 이번 강연을 통해 꼭 전달하고 싶은 이야기가 있다고 하시는데요,

첫째, 세계은행이 어떻게 전 세계의 빈곤문제 해결과 지속가능한발전을 위해 일하고 있는지,

둘째, 국제기구의 일원으로 사는 삶은 어떠한지,

셋째, 나와 그런 일들이 적합할지, 그렇다면 어떤 준비가 필요할지,

친절하고 또 최대한 진솔하게 말씀해주시면서, 여러분과의 시간을 만들어가고 싶다고 하십니다!

(얼굴만 훈남이신 줄 알았는데, 함께 해주고 싶으시다는 그 마음, 열정까지도 훈훈합니다^^)

그리고 이제는 더 말씀드리지 않아도 동네방네 소문이 났을, “UNGO 진로 여행의 밤”의 강점!

바로, 멘토님이 해주시는 강연 시간(약 1시간)에 맞먹을 만큼의 질의 응답 및 멘토링 세션입니다 :)

아주 소소한 질문부터 거창하고 원대한 포부까지-

마음을 열고 멘토님 및 참가자들과 이런 저런 이야기를 나누면서 비슷한 고민을 안고 있는 서로를 위해 소중한 시간을 함께 만들어나갈 여러분 모두에게 UNGO 진로 여행의 밤은 늘 열려있습니다!

그럼 5월 23일(목) 저녁 7시, 미지센터 나눔방에서 만나요 :)

 

There are various factors and hypothesis that claim what changes our climate. The most certain and influential factor is the pollution by human activities. Thus, emitted greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially carbon dioxide (CO2) make the planet to become warmer. Global warming increases the sea level and melted icebergs not only change the salinity of seawater but also make currents unpredictable. Extreme climates make our lives more unstable, more frequently. Among MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), the seventh goal focuses on hygiene and living condition of the poor society, but it is now losing its direction towards systematic reformation in the means of industrial system. With only four years left before the deadline, 2015, talks between nations about sustainable development is receiving lots of attention while not making much progress.

In front of the United Nations

 

Maldives and Tuvalu gave up their sovereignty, and rising sea level presses the people to be submerged in the middle of an endless ocean. While time is ticking off, no government has been able to come up with a practical, measurable solution. MUNCCC (Model United Nations Climate Change Conference) seeks bright youths to solve it for the adults who are confined to economic benefits and worried about its losses.

 

Before the debate, each delegate wrote their Position Paper, a short essay stating their nations’ goals to achieve throughout the meeting. Here is a part of mine:

“Germany would like to achieve two things in this climate change conference: 1. Setting framework policy that reinforces both economic growth and conservation of nature capital. 2. Coming up with measures to provide incentives to use natural resources efficiently and making pollution more expensive. Both idea stress that environment should no longer be free. Germany finds the most basic reason why nations have been free to abuse nature capital without hesitance in that it is nobody’s responsibility to restore what one has taken. However, while number one requires international and long term compromises, the latter calls for the measures for the time being, before the green economic structure completely stabilizes in societies.” (Tip: In all sessions, in writing or during the debate, everyone including yourselves must be recognized as a third person pronouns.)

 

Every participant represents a nation in a committee as a delegate. Each committee has its own agendas, and mine was ‘OECD and Green Growth’. Only OECD member nations were open to the debate, so there should be a different focus compared to a session in the General Assembly. It is important to grasp which countries with certain economic and social capacity is participating in the debate. Whereas OECD members can more easily afford money costing projects, not all members in GA are capable. Also, there are always main countries in the center leading the debate, ones highly involved in the agenda. It is important and inevitable to form power structures around those delegates. Also, always take notes, because almost all the speeches made during the conference are impromptu; delegates take notes while they listen to the others, and at the same time how to refer to it. But above all, do not get too emotional, or you might personally hurt the other delegate.

 

In the debate session, delegates from US, ROK, Spain have expressed their recent concerns over their fiscal difficulty compared to Switzerland, Germany or UK. But a decision paper written by Switzerland and UK merely suggested already comparably eco-friendly nations to take part in green technology share without the mention of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). In vice versa, there were no incentives for the technology/ fiscal aid donor nations. The entire decision paper was appeasing to environmentally developed nations for their benevolence. Since decision papers are not mandatory or legally binding, the paper was merely a justification to deny their window dressing. In the mean while, highly developing nations (ROK, Mexico and Brazil) were helplessly waiting for developed nations’ aid. This was not going to work. The paper did not encourage any of the developing nations to voluntarily strive harder to achieve the knowledge of green management, nor for developed nations, pass on to other nations to make this world greener.

 

With Spain, ROK, US and Ireland, we introduced BAMP(Bilateral Appropriate Mitigation Program / 양국간적절완화프로그램). This is a practical form of NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigaton Action), which the president of ROK has brought attention to in 2009 COP (Conference of Parities) in Copenhagen. Developing nations would have to pay small payment to developed nations in exchange for the green technological support, thereby establishing a world sized immense partnership. If the developing nations have failed to achieve the CO2 emission percentage, they had to pay interest to the developed nations; the rate was left to be determined according to their fiscal situation. World Bank will be participating as a mediator. This idea gained the support from the majority and refined the paper in a more practical manner.

Members and student officers of Committee 8, 'OECD and Green Growth'

           MUNCCC 2011 was held by YTN in Korea University with cooperation of British Embassy. Prize winners were later invited to a reception in the British Embassy in Seoul, and had a luncheon. Smaller number of people among them will be lucky enough to participate in COP 17, South Africa as observers. For those of you students wishing to be a diplomat one day, this experience is indispensible and priceless. Become a face of one country for a few days! This experience has motivated many youth including me to find their passion, career, dream and potential. Do you want to feel the goose bumps? Dive in one of the Model United Nations and voice your opinion.

I could not understand why people in Africa laid tens of children when they could not raise them all healthily. Neither could I comprehend why an enormous continent, Africa, with so much resource left underground, they would not dig them up and make use of them. But as it turns out, we were lucky that we were not born in Africa. Most chances are that we too would be suffering from extreme poverty and malnourished if we were simply out of luck. Just as we are protected, since birth, under a relatively stable environment, African children did not choose their destiny either.

‘Phew, that was close..’ Sure. We successfully made a narrow escape from not being born in Africa. But this is not an attitude to be encouraged. We cannot put off solving the seemingly endless chain of poverty forever. As a same human being with a sense of compassion, we feel sorry to hear their everyday lives. We will never experience that pain but 2 billion populations is covering their stomach, not in hunger but knife sticking pain.

There was a lecture by Song Shin Hye (The Korean Committee for UNICEF, Manager of Education Development Division) in MIZY center (Seoul Youth Center for Cultural Exchange) in July 20th, with the topic of ‘MDGs, for A World Where Every Child is Happy’. The lecture was originally for the Youth Reporters of MIZY, but it became open for anyone who is interested in child well-being and MDGs.

Song Shin Hye, Manager of Education Development Division, The Korean Committee for UNICEF alks about how UN can be compared to a galaxy.

I was surprised to hear there were so many close relations between MDGs and children. MDGs are Millennium Development Goals, approved by UN in 2000, Summit Meeting. It has designated 8 conundrums to be solved upon decided percentage by 2015. (See below for more information) She declared very shocking statistics from the beginning of the speech, that 50 percent of the social class to be protected by MDGs is children, by definition, people of five to eighteen years old. They are vulnerable; immune system is to be developed by thorough nourishment. Yet, overwhelming number of children in South-West Africa, for instance, is heavily dependent on infrequent, unsustainable foreign medical aids. They are so depended on those aids that the number fluctuates according to the foreign aid given.

MDG declares: ‘As leaders we have a duty therefore to the entire world’s people, especially the most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of the world, to whom the future belongs. ’ However this promise is not being kept very well. The average life expectancy for people in Zimbabwe is 36. A third of children are dying of malnutrition. Pneumonia derives from simple cold. Many African children suffer from diarrhea because they drank filthy water. Malaria is easily overcome than common mosquitoes’ bites but they are known to be deadly because people in Africa have weak immune system to fight against malaria.

                                                               MDG slogan

UNICEF is facing several responsibilities: First they must increase maternal health (MDG Goal 5: Maternal Health). When mothers are healthy, entire household becomes healthy (MDG Goal 4: Child Health). Children do not have to work instead of their parents but go to school. This is how universal education comes true (MDG Goal 2: Universal Education). People become more intellectual, and develop their insights towards the world through education. This leads to eradication of extreme poverty and hunger (MDG Goal 1: End Poverty and Hunger) in the long run, because educated people are more likely to have better jobs than simple labor or going through trash. Someday, female version of Nelson Mandela will be leading Africa. At this moment, women are less educated compared to male, but through ‘universal’ education, more women will fight for gender equality and empower women (MDG Goal 3: Gender Equality). Ultimately, national strength and sovereignty will come to stand firm, and their governments will focus on basic sanitation as their life quality increases. HIV/AIDS and other diseases will be eradicated (MDG Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS) by increased sanity.

                                           UNICEF(United Nation Children's Fund)
 

There is a time limit to MDG goals. Until 2015, all the goals should be met. However it seems to me it would be very hard in any goal to reach the expected level. Nevertheless, I think we should keep going like we used to. It doesn’t mean the world will end in 2015, the time will pass but people stay the same. The time limit exists to give pressure and prevent from nations saving the issue for later but encourage instantly putting action to it. Whenever we believe it is already late, it is the earliest it can get.

 

Now: how can you contribute to UNICEF and to the world’s being?

Go to https://www.unicef.or.kr/donate/main.asp

You can send gifts or monthly donations. 1,000 won a day can save a dying child. In your pencil case, you are carrying lives of 10 children. What would you do? It is in your hands.

 

 

 

MDG goals

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

           - Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day

           - Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People

           - Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education 
       - By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
        - Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates
          - Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

      -       Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
-       Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

      -        Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
-        Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it
-       Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

      -  Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources

      - Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss

      - Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply)

     - By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

     -        Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

     -       Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC)

     -       Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island

     -       Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

     -        In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries

     -       In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications