Dear Eco- enthusiasts,

It's a privilege for me to share the impressions of Global Youth Eco- Leadership Summit (GYELS) held in Seoul, Korea from 9- 13th February, 2015 hosted by Samsung engineering and Korea Green Foundation. Yeah, time flies really fast and the five days of summit passed in the blink of an eye. Yet, the enriched memories are perpetual.

I and our selected delegates were busy in the preparation before heading Korea.

A) Preparatory Phase

I started preparation from early January. My main tasks were to review the draft of MUN program, researching other MUN programs and to gather basic materials for providing to the delegates. It was opportunity for me to learn, explore and share my ideas to make MUN an effective one. As I was assigned as chairperson for the Model United Nations, it was my responsibility to mentor the delegates for all necessary requirements for MUN. It was really an honor to be a chairperson at such noble platform and mentor such ardent delegates. I created Facebook group as it would be more convenient to communicate with the delegates and very happy to see the active participation of delegates in the group. I worked closely with organizing Korea Green Foundation (Eco child team) and Tunza Eco- generation throughout this phase and their constructive feedback encouraged me to work hard and research better. I tried my best to be friendly with our young delegates and help them all the way I can. I felt very happy to receive emails, Facebook messages from our delegates about their confusions and queries. Hard work of our delegates and their enthusiasm certainly deserves applause of respect.

Finally, it was 8th February and time to fly to magnificent Korea and meet wonderful people. I was very excited to meet in person the organizers and delegates with whom I had been communicating for so long. Happiness had no limits to meet them on 9th February at the Lexington Hotel, Seoul Korea.

As announced earlier, GYELS 2015 consisted of 3 parts and for your convenience I would like to share accordingly

1) Global Youth for Environment Forum (GYEF) - Was conducted at Seoul National University, that brought collectively 400 students (300 Korean and 100 overseas) from grade 5th to 10th. Prominent scholars, experts and environmental activists gave lectures on theme ?Solutions to water issues for future generations". Total there were five lectures (2 in 2^nd day and 3 in 3^rd day of the summit). Translator was provided as some presentation was in Korean. I was so happy to see the well managed arrangements for seats and lunch, it was very systematic. The participants were young but their quest to learn and explore was clearly demonstrated by the relevant questions they raised after each lectures. So many hands of participants rose up to ask for questions and suggestions. I was amazed to see the enthusiasm our young minds had. The lectures were very informative that covered vast areas starting from water, its composition, pollution scenario, appropriate water technology and different case studies of river restoration, rainwater harvesting, example of water industry in Finland, beach cleanup campaign initiated by Michael Reid. Michael Reid founder of Life Recycled also demonstrated one example of recycling beach wastes and each participant made beautiful accessories with the pieces of pipes and wires provided to them. Lecturers cracked some jokes to make lectures more interesting and interactive, lecturer Taru Salminen also taught basic Finnish phrases like Moi (Hello). It was fun learning it.

2) Model United Nations (MUN) - MUN was conducted in 3 sessions and 20 delegates from 12 different countries were assigned to 5 groups (Country A, Neighboring country, Business sector, NGO and citizens) and four teams. The background was country A (virtual country) planning to build many dams on shared rivers as river refurbishment project and the mixed reactions of different stakeholders regarding to the positive and negative consequences of the project. I was more curious about MUN it was my main responsibility. There were two team discussions and one group discussion, a team leader and team name was chosen for each group and supporter was there to facilitate each team in the entire process. I was amazed and pleased to see the active participation of our delegates. They understood their role and put themselves in the shoe of policy maker to defend their position. The main purpose of discussions was to draft a resolution that satisfies the position of every group. There was award for winning team based on voting and evaluation by the judging committee. Team C won the award for presenting the best resolution. But yeah, every team worked hard till late night even after the sessions were over to draft the resolution. I felt blessed to be with such energetic youths and honestly MUN was FUN!

One secret planning by the organizing team- It was Jenna's birthday (delegate from Canada) in the 3rd GYELS session and cake was brought secretly for celebration. She was surprised and everyone enjoyed the celebration.

3) Excursions- Yay! It was the most recreational moment. We were taken to the Everland Amusement Park where we enjoyed a lot of thrilling and entertaining games like Roller Coaster, Snow Sledge, 4D experiences etc. Our next visit was to Samsung Engineering where we came to know about the works and achievements of Samsung Engineering. Moreover, the visit to Gyeongbok Palace and Insa-dong let us experience the culture and history of Korea better. Seoul Tower was amazing. We had very good time together and excursion strengthen the bond between and among organizers and participants. There was a selfie contest too. So glad that Team A (team I joined for excursion) won the contest. For sure, excursions added more charm to the entire summit.

Besides these, there was PT party in which delegates did presentations and best four got chance to present in the GYEF too. I am glad that one of our delegates Rohan Kapur (UAE) was awarded for his excellent presentation. There was a card game called amount of water I have got. I was smiling as I could see our delegates enjoying the game and playing well. There was a secret friend matching program and each delegate were secrete angel of one delegate they choose randomly on the first day. They shared gifts with their secret friends and everyone looked happy to receive gifts, me too.

Some Hardships

For achievements struggle definitely lies behind. Likewise, I would like to share some of the hindrances I had gone through at this time I can't stay without sharing with you all. Actually just 10 days before heading towards Korea I was ill, suffered from acute bronchitis. I consulted doctor and took 5 sets of high dosage antibiotics for a week doctor prescribed to take enough rest and indicated the preliminary stage of pneumonia. My mother was more worried seeing me working till late in winter. But I convinced her that I can't step backward, my delegates are looking forward for my guidelines and I can't break my promise to help them my best. May be due to my strong commitment I recovered and could perform my role well even when I was having medicine. Moreover, the power cut off in my country (11 hours a day) provided limited access to internet. I had to wake till late or very early sometimes to have access and check my emails and Facebook messages. As our delegates were very young I should think and rethink to make them understand the procedures of MUN, rules and guidelines for position paper in the simplest way possible. Also, there was difference in time zone and some misunderstandings which are obvious during virtual communication. Despite all these, I tried my best to fulfill my responsibilities sincerely.  Hopefully I did the best, I could have done.

In a nutshell

Those five days were the days of my life. I am fortunate to be a part of the summit. I will never get tired thanking the organizers who selected me to be the chairperson (among so many talented applicants from across the world) in such a noble platform of MUN. Ms. Christy, Mrs. Erika, Ms. Kang, Ms. Tea and the entire organizing team were very friendly and supportive. Chaperones were so friendly and of course our delegates were energetic, youthful and cooperative. We enjoyed every moment of togetherness whether it was breakfast, lunch, group photograph or travel in bus. It was really worthy time with all these wonderful people. I can confidently claim it was once in a life time opportunity that left no stones unturned to make it more thriving than ever. I and all of us got invaluable opportunity to learn and explore different eras of water issues and sustainability measures. No doubt, GYELS 2015 was a rare academic opportunity to broaden the horizon of our potentials. Everyone had equal role to accomplish the GYELS 2015 so once more thank you all for your tireless efforts and contributions before and during the summit. It was wonderful being with you all and hopefully we would meet next time, may be in different place. I tried with my best efforts to be at everyone's expectations but still lastly, I would like to apologize for any of my faults if there were unknowingly.

Though the impressions I shared is quite lengthy, hopefully you enjoyed reading it and I am elated to share it with you all.

(Let's GO Green! Keep serving, keep sharing. Next turn is yours, get prepared)