Muna - Model United Nations Alfrink

"Staying passive makes you an accomplish to the injustices in this world. Act now." Sylvestre Bwira

Model United Nations Alfrink (MUNA) is an annual simulation of the United Nations. For three days, students from several countries in Europe gather at Alfrink College in Zoetermeer (The Netherlands) to debate global issues. During the conference students will be the delegates of the United Nations.

MUNA started in 2005 as a small project for students from Alfrink College Zoetermeer only. In the past seven years, MUNA has grown to become a friendly and international MUN conference with approximately 300 delegates. MUNA is proud to be a 'starters' conference and gives students who are not yet familiar with debating global issues a chance to participate as well. Most of all, our MUN conference is a lot of fun debating and making international friends! MUNA 2014 will be the 9th MUNA conference.

 MUNA: a conference with a social mission 

We at MUNA believe that during the debates we should not lose sight of the people behind the issues, the people behind the statistics, people whose lives are touched by the issues discussed at a MUNA conference. In order to do this the MUNA staff has reached out to grassroots development projects around the world. Every year we highlight one grassroots project at the conference as our MUNA charity of the year. What is unique about the MUNA charity effort is that the MUNA staff works directly with the people who run the project and also work together in preparation for the MUNA conference.

MUNA charity 2013: Karen Mobile News Team.

We will inform everybody shortly about the amount of money we  have raised for this year's charity. The collaboration with the reporters of the KMNT, the Skype conversations during the opening ceremony, with the MUNA press team and in GA4 were very special. We will definitely stay in touch!

Thank you so much!

'The first casualty in war is the truth', is a famous quote by US Senator Hiram W. Johnson in 1917. The MUNA staff wants to add something to this quote: The first step out of war and towards reconciliation and understanding is the truth and nothing else but the truth. Therefore the MUNA staff is proud to announce that it full-heartedly supports an initiative by Australian journalist Phil Thornton to train and empower young Burmese refugees, who have lived in refugee camps on the Thai Burma border, to become journalists. The emphasis has been to train journalists who tell their stories truthfully, in a balanced and informed way. It is vital that reporters provide their communities with timely, truthful and balanced news reports that allow people to make informed decisions about important events. This is critical at the moment, as the government has entered into ceasefire arrangements with the Karen National Union. All of the Karen News team has never known peace, they come from forcibly displaced communities and refugee camps. The Karen National Union has fought the world’s longest civil war in contemporary history. The MUNA staff will work closely with the Karen News team in preparation for the conference. We urge all delegates to do what they can to raise money for the MUNA charity. The money raised will be used by the Karen Mobile News Team to buy multi media equipment that will enable them to continue with their important work.

MUNA collaboration with Humanity House and Justitia et Pax in Hague Shelter City project

The MUNA staff collaborates this year in a special project initiated by human rights organisation www.justitiaetpax.nl called www.sheltercity.org. The Hague Shelter City Initiative offers human rights defenders the possibility for rest and respite by letting them escape from a temporarily threatening situation. Human Rights defenders can stay in the Hague for a periode of three months and can continue their work from here. The Hague is the first Shelter City; the project is approved and supported by the city council of the Hague. Justitia et Pax and www.humanityhouse.nl organize several events where human rights defenders can get in touch with other people and talk about their human rights work. During MUNA 2013 Human Rights defenders will speak at the conference and representatives of Justitia et Pax and Humanity House will be present.

Other grassroots development projects sponsored by MUNA are the Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF) and Jagriti Public School, Katna, West Bengal, India. Check out www.burmachildren.com and www.streetsurvivorsindia.org

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MUNAlfrink and follow us on twitter: @munalfrink for the latest news and updates on MUNA 2013.