Being part of the Nord Anglia Education family of schools and our collaboration with UNICEF often presents our BISW students with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. On Friday, June 19, one of our Year 13 students – Élodie Camus – took part in a virtual meeting with UN representatives who form the ‘Group of Friends of Children and the SDGs’.
The ‘Group of Friends’ is a group of 63 UN Member States. They formed when the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were being negotiated to ensure child rights and voices were reflected in the goals. They continue to meet and advocate for the SDGs to be implemented from a child rights perspective. Every year, they meet ahead of the High-Level Political Forum (where the SDGs are reviewed) to discuss how they can continue this advocacy.
Élodie, along with Nkosilathi Nyathi, UN Climate Change Youth Ambassador from Zimbabwe, presented at the 2020 GOF meeting to advocate for children and young people as the catalyst for change as UN work towards Building Back Better following the COVID-19 pandemic. Also presenting at the meeting were Henrietta Fore (Executive Director of UNICEF), Najat Maalla M’jid of Morocco (UN Special Representative on Violence against Children), and Andrew Morley (President and CEO for World Vision International).
Elodie spoke passionately about how she has seen young people, both in our school and in the wider local, national and global community, engage in the SDGs and the importance of their voices in ensuring sustainable change; a mission echoed by many of the representatives also speaking at the meeting. She shared with the UN members about her role as the BISW Global Goals President and how she hopes to have inspired more members of our school community to embrace their capacity as change-makers. Elodie got a thumbs-up from Henrietta Fore when she mentioned our efforts in reducing plastic waste in our school!
We want to take this opportunity to congratulate Elodie for superbly representing our BISW student body, our NAE global student community, and being a voice for all young people across the world to the people currently capable of making positive change. We also echo the comments by Andrew Morley that you will surely be one of our change-makers in the future!
Mrs. Katie Stewart
English & Performing Arts Teacher
NAE-UNICEF Regional Lead for The Americas
British International School of Washington
