The first week of December, I and 10 other high school students were honored to have the opportunity to travel abroad to Kosovo for a Model United Nation conference, “KIMUN”.
Our group included students from three religions: 5 Muslims, 1 Christian and 5 Jews. Not only in religion was the group different, but also in opinion and ideas. But with all those differences we found a lot more similarities between us, and because of those differences and similarities we become such a big family that care for each other and love one another, and I proudly call them my family.
We were traveling as part of an organization that gave us this amazing chance called “Debate for Peace”, that has as one of its main aims to try to achieve peace between Arab and Jewish students, and in my opinion we have definitely reached that goal in this trip.
I’ve learned so much in my time in Kosovo, about the country and its history; the history of the nationality of the Kosovo people.
The People there fought strongly to defend their country through the years so that Kosovo can have its independence, which it finally achieved in 2008. That’s why it’s still called a “New Born”.
Fortunately, we went to beautiful and wonderful places in Kosovo that are filled with history and stories and met with some incredible people that told us about more amazing historical events that happened in Kosovo. I would love to visit more places there and see more sites that mean so much to the citizens.
The people of Kosovo welcomed us so warmly from the start of our journey till the end; with open arms and huge smiles, they are very kind and so amazing that you can’t help but care for them and call them your friends.
This Model UN conference was very effective for me in so many ways. One of them is to have the confidence to stand up straight in front a group that includes students who are younger than me and also older, to give my speech with raised voice showing no hesitation.
I honestly can’t wait to go back to Kosovo, to see those wonderful, amazing, great people again and also to see more of what Kosovo has to offer. This trip was the most memorable experience in my life.
By: Alia Habiballah
Debate for Peace 