HOME > Topics > 2014 > 【報告】「持続可能な開発のための教育(ESD)に関するユネスコ世界会議」に学生ボランティア通訳として参加

2014.11.10-12
【報告】「持続可能な開発のための教育(ESD)に関するユネスコ世界会議」に学生ボランティア通訳として参加

11月10日から3日間、愛知県名古屋市および岡山市にて「持続可能な開発のための教育(ESD)に関するユネスコ世界会議」(ユネスコと文部科学省共催)が開催されました。この会議では、「国連ESDの10年」を振り返るとともに、今後のESDの推進について話し合われました。その会議に、本学学生ノーラ・ケリエルさんが学生ボランティア通訳として選出されました。

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Thoughts on my volunteer activity at the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Early in the morning of November the 9th I took the bullet train from Tokyo down to Nagoya city where the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was going to be held. The event engaged 200 other students from around Japan volunteering as guides for the delegations that would attend the 3-day conference.

The company called Congress organized the volunteer activity and after an application, interview and information meeting, I was accepted. Since the conference’s theme was on ESD many African countries were participating, and students speaking English and/or French were in demand. I met a lot of students who had done exchange studies in countries like Morocco, Lebanon or India and we had fun sharing our sometimes surprising cultural differences.

The UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development was marking the last year of a 10-year period of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). During the whole event, we were going to be guides for a particular country and its delegation. Our main activities were to pick up the delegates at the airport, train station or hotel and escort them to the event site which was the congress center of Nagoya. Once on the site, we would make sure that the delegation was at the right place at the right time.

Depending on the size of the delegation we would be alone or in pairs to escort the delegation. I was designated to the delegation of Kuwait, and was lucky to be put as a pair with another student from Tokyo. The princess of Kuwait was to come, so we were both very excited to meet her. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen circumstances she could not attend, but we had the pleasure of greeting the ex-minister of education of Kuwait and his assistant.

For the following days, we were literally running backwards and forwards. To get most out of the event, our delegation decided to split up in order to be able to attend two workshops at the same time. Around 20 workshops were held every day by professors, researchers and organizations, but many were held at the same time and therefore prioritizing was important. Furthermore, our delegation made arrangements with other delegations outside the official events, and we had to make sure that everything fitted into their schedule.

As the days went by, after talking with my fellow volunteer guides, I noticed that more and more delegations did the same thing as Kuwait. They would make private meetings, and even prioritize them over the workshops and official events.

Thinking back on it, I believe that the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable development was a great success not only because of its program, and that UNESCO managed to gather 181 countries, but because a lot of the serious talk about the future of education was actually held around coffee tables.

I myself did not learn a lot about Education for Sustainable Development, but I had the joy of seeing cross-cultural communication among countries and people from around the world gathered together for an important cause, so I was glad to be involved.

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