United Nations Day 2016
One Humanity, Shared Responsibility:
Responding Locally to the Refugee Crisis
UNA-USA Westchester County Chapter’s celebration of UN Day 2016 on October 23 attracted over 130 participants to the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester. It was an excellent event with an outstanding keynote presentations by UN-DESA’s Chief of the Migration Section, Mr. Bela Hovy, and a moving reflection on being a Bosnian refugee by Munira Okovic. This was followed by a Q and A session moderated by Board member Mary Seward Downes and then a “Call to Action, Syrian Refugees” for Westchester County from Andrew Courtney, who is coordinating the initiative. He provided very useful information on what we can do on the ground to welcome Syrian families who will be arriving in our towns in the next few months. We had a short reception, followed by a mini-simulation (mini-sim) of a Model UN related to “The Situation in Syria”, in which most of the students and other guests participated. It was facilitated by some of our Young Professionals and teachers. The enthusiastic audience described how much they learned from this program. We are eager to follow it up with Adopt a Future as well as in our communities. Cosponsors of this event included three chapters of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Links, Inc., YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester and the League of Women Voters.
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Program of Events |
Click to see the Photo Gallery from UN Day 2016.
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