Day 24(1/26/18) *Geneva/United Nations*

Day 24:)

Unfortunately our last day of speakers has arrived…they went out with a bang though, since today our speakers were (in my opinion) super entertaining, engaging/interactive, and memorable! 

I woke up this morning hopeful that my cold might have gone away, but alas, I was wrong 😬 I think I’m just going to have to accept that I’ll deal with this cold when the trip is done…I just can’t justify taking any time away from class right now to help heal it because this opportunity will not be here for very long! I know I’ll have to pay for this decision later, but, as the orphan Annie (from the musical) says, “that’s not now…that’s then!” :)

Anyway, after breakfast, we boarded the bus to a different part of town, it was actually kinda residential which was nice to see since we’ve been in the heart of the city for most of the time. We arrived at the building and began listening to our two speakers for the day!

Speaker: United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
*Our speaker for this UN branch gave a really interesting talk about how the agency works with developing countries, but he asked that we not discuss/write about/talk about anything he told us, given the delicate nature of the work they do. So, in order to respect this request, I’ve chosen to omit a reflection on this speaker in my journal.*
Speakers: Mark Grassi and Nils Holta, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
Top 3 things to know:
1. 86/169 of the SDG targets mention the environment, so this agency is extremely relevant to the future of public health and the goals of the United Nations.
2. 7% of the world’s GDP goes to playing for air-pollution health issues. As a result, the UNEP has set up a website in order to warn people of places that might have dangerous air pollution levels. The website is “www.breathelife2030.org" and publishes air quality data on the participating cities. The goal is to reduce the amount of air pollution by 2030!
3. They did their presentation entirely on a trivia website called “Kahoot!”. It was so engaging, since everyone plays and competes against each other, and it also helped to emphasise what they were teaching us! They even gave us all t-shirts at the end which they had from a recent fundraiser for air cleaning :)

Something surprising:
• The UNEP is headquartered in Nairobi! This surprised me because I assumed it would be in Geneva, along with several other of the UN headquarters.

Something worrisome/hopeful:
• 4.8-12.7 million tons of plastic pollution fill the oceans each year….this is heading towards the risk of having more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish by weight in the oceans. While this clearly is my “most worrisome” point, it’s also my “most hopeful” because several big corporations, such as Dell, have decided to use ocean plastic in their packaging and materials so as to try to combat this dire issue. My hope is that by having the big corporations on board, more money will go into cleaning the oceans, and therefore, the lives there can be saved. There is also an effort available where people can sign up to volunteer to clean oceans, which can be found at "www.cleanseas.org"-check it out if you ever are traveling near an ocean; apparently they take volunteers for as little as a few hours if you’re free for an afternoon!

After the presentations, we headed back to John Knox for our own presentations! I listened to classmates discuss mental health in the workplace, educational impacts in Kerala(India), the “pisos firmes” initiative to bring concrete floors in to replace dirt, as well as pediatric health disparities. Again, since, I wasn’t feeling very well still, I ended up actually going to bed soon after the presentations. Tomorrow we’ll go on a class trip to a little ski village, Chamonix, so I’m trying to feel a little better by then!

So, goodnight :) 

-Anna

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