Page 17 - FerMUN 2020 - Futurecasters Global Young Visionaries Summit, 8th-10th January 2020

After the official opening of the Futurecasters Global Young Visionaries Summit and 10th edition
of FerMUN By Ms Gessienne GREY. We chose 4 main issues:

§ Poverty and inequality
§ New technologies

§ Climate change and environmental issues
§ Population changes (focus on migrations)

To introduce each issue, 4 students delivered a speech with their personal view. After each
speech, 3 or 4 questions came from the audience.

Poverty and inequality
Ms Qirat FATIMA student from Pakistan

Your excellences, faculty members, my fellow delegates from around the world,

Asalaam o alaikum,

Almost two billion global citizens are suffering the indignity of poverty. My country Pakistan

represents 48 million of the global poor. Across the world whether we measure poverty using a
dollar a day index or the multi-dimensional measure employed by the UN, the conclusion is
always the same – poverty is everywhere. The reason I say there is nothing dignified about
being poor is because the consequences of poverty are disastrous for the human spirit, mind,

and body. I cannot put in words what poverty feels like but a 16 year old Pakistani girl collecting
trash and rummaging through leftover food scraps could certainly do so. She’s not here
though…I am.

I began my Model UN journey three years ago. In that time I have spoken at Yale University

and University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. Today, at 16, I am here in Geneva speaking to you at
the European Headquarters of the United Nations. In two years, I will graduate high school and
travel abroad for higher studies.

Back home, the 16 year old trash collector has never eaten three nutritional meals a day. She

has never tasted clean drinking water. She has been sick most of her life due to malnutrition
and poor hygiene. As a result, she is suffering from poor gut health, a compromised immune
system, cognitive impairment, and her body is shorter than her genetic average due to

stunting. Her children will be at high risk of being born with deficiencies and abnormalities.
Intervention now would mean she would have a dignified minimum living standard. What she
will never have are the opportunities I have to decide my future.

Even if we reached her now, provided above a dollar a day, put food on her table, gave her
a roof, it’s too late…at best we could make her comfortable and bring some dignity to her

standard of living. What she will never have are the choices I have to decide my future.

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