Greenside High School is proud of its UN Debating team who have experienced an outstanding year of achievement.
Teacher in charge of debating William Wareham highlighted the school’s honour of being selected to participate in the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) Young Leaders Conference to discuss the future of the African continent in accordance with the theme of ‘Redefining African Youth Participation: A Path to Transformative Leadership. The conference was held at Wits University with Grade 11 learners Terique Carim and Bibi Faatimah Moosa invited to participate in the event for the award of Best Delegation at the 2019 Sharpville Model UN Debate.
September saw Bibi Faatimah, Zaheer Sooliman and Terique win bronze for their delegation in the UN Security Council, representing the Dominican Republic. The highlight of the event was seeing Wassim Waja win a silver award for best individual speaker in the indigenous languages committee representing Bhutan in Unesco.
Debaters were also requested to submit research papers on various social, political and economic topics for consideration at SAIIA. Grade 11 learners Fatima Matwadia and Zaheer wrote theirs on the effects of climate change on seas and oceans and were selected to present their research at the SAIIA/Wits Climate Change Symposium held in the first week of October. The audience consisted of several national and international diplomats from across the world.
The school also commended learners Aatikah Sheikh, Bibi Faatmiah, Fatima Matwadia, Terique and Zaheer for their opportunity to provide youth input into the new draft Gender-Based Violence National Strategic Framework. The Youth@SAIIA team worked with the new members to create a youth statement to submit to the government. A further workshop on the implementation of climate change action is currently underway with Zaheer selected to present the findings alongside nine other learners from across the country directly to the minister of the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.
“We commend all our debaters and congratulate them on a wonderful year… We are amazed by what our learners have achieved. If this is the calibre of politician our country is to one day see, the future looks brighter than ever imagined,” said Wareham.
Related articles:
Greenside High learners relieved after achieving 100 per cent pass rate
WATCH: Greenside High learner scores best overall NSC matric results in Gauteng
Greenside High learner forms part of winning Gauteng Minquiz team
