Dear School Community,
For this week’s newsletter, we decided to be inspired by the speech that Mr. Paul Ndegwa (CEO, Safaricom), gave to the MUN students during the conference.
Mr. Ndegwa shared his own experience as an ordinary citizen growing up in rural Kenya and becoming the head of the largest and most successful company in East Africa, not only in terms of size and profitability, but also because Safaricom has made a significant contribution to education and health. Of course, it has also revolutionized Kenyan society in the digital economy through the introduction of MPESA.
Mr. Ndegwa elaborated on the role Safaricom played during the pandemic, especially through the deployment of MPESA in rural Kenya, reminding us that if we are to succeed as a society, we must take everyone with us and leave no one behind. He concluded by saying that there may be a silver lining to COVID – before COVID we took things for granted, but the pandemic has proven that we can actually get by with less; we need less than we think to get by. Less is perhaps more.
He addressed the delegates with the following important message:
“Your socio-economic background cannot stop you from doing what you want. You can be anyone you want to be if you are passionate about your beliefs, if you dream big, if you think positively and if you make courageous decisions. Society rewards hard work and persistence. Be patient, stay focused and stay humble.”
This is true for the five brave DSN students* who participated in this year’s EAMUN conference. For the first time ever, we did not have enough students willing to attend the conference, citing that the conference would only be virtual, that two of the five conference days fell during holidays, or that they had exams soon after. However, our delegation made the brave decision to attend, dreamed big, were passionate in their convictions and they remained positive despite the COVID situation, despite the great difficulties we faced in preparing the resolutions. The MUN Forum rewarded their hard work by fiercely debating and defending the resolutions. Their patience, humility and focus paid off in the end. Sandra, Wangui, Paul, Theo and Kamau: Remember, your socio-economic background does not matter – what matters is your attitude. We see future CEOs in you!
Once again, the German School shone at the conference- Kamau Kori won the prize for the best resolution in the Human Rights Committee. Kamau debated and defended his resolution himself and we are very proud of him.
S. Shah, M. Fanenbruck
MUN Coordinators
