By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: In a remarkable feat, five students of Arabic from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) represented India United Nations General Assembly in New York and expressed their ideas on Sustainable development.
The students took part in ‘Many Languages One World’ (MLOW) International Student Essay Contest which was part of an initiative by United Nations on sustainable development agenda with the imperative of linguistic and cultural diversity post 2015. The 5 students from JNU were among the 70 winners from 42 countries.
The contest was conceived, created and was jointly managed by ELS Educational Services and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI).
University students (graduate and undergraduate) from all around the world were invited to write and submit an essay examining the UN’s global development agenda in the official languages of the United Nations viz Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Five students Asif Iqbal Khan, Irfan Ahmed, Mohd Mahboob Alam, Mukhlesur Rahman and Hanna Beckhan from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) qualified among winners in Arabic Language who were later invited to attend the Many Languages One World (MLOW) Global Youth Forum in Garden City, New York at Adelphi University from the July 20th to July 26th this month. All the students are studying Arabic in JNU.
One of the students Asif Iqbal Khan spoke with TwoCircles.net about the event. He informed that the essay competition was held two months ago in which around 1200 students had participated.
Around 10 students, on an average, were selected from each category of the six languages.
Asif Iqbal Khan
Khan informed that after being shortlisted in the Arabic language category, they were later interviewed online before being invited to attend the MLOW Global Youth Forum in Garden City, New York at Adelphi University.
On July 25 this month, the five winner students from JNU along with their winner counterparts from different countries in Arabic Category made presentations before the United Nations General Assembly in Arabic on the theme “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” at a special meeting held at United Nations Headquarters.
The groups of 70 winners from all six languages were given an opportunity to make a presentation at the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York. “We five students from JNU, along with five other winning students from different countries gave our presentations in Arabic language,” Khan informed TCN, adding that each student got two minutes for the presentation.
Another Student of JNU, Mohd Mahboob Alam who is pursuing his Masters in Arabic and is one of the winners in International essay competition told TwoCircles.net that they got an opportunity to interact with likeminded youth from across the world.
“It is a Platform to likeminded youths of world who link multilingualism to development whether it’s educational, financial or cultural development. It boosts ones’ morale and expose to different sets of ideas in his/her mind by taking part in these kinds of events,” he said.