We were delighted to welcome Mrs. Maria José Torres, UN Resident Coordinator for Malawi to Miss BIelsa’s Global Politics class last Friday. She shared her expertise and experiences with the group, listened to the students' presentations, interacting with them, and answering all their questions, leading to meaningful discussions on development, gender equality, climate change, human rights, rule of law amongst others.

 

Mrs. Torres shared that she was “very impressed by the excellent presentations that the students made...their way to articulate issues and think on the connections and their excellent questions. ... I could appreciate the quality of the presentation that they had put together. Also,I found really great that the group who presented on gender empowerment was mainly boys. Please congratulate the group for their amazing work on Malawi."

 

 

"I felt extremely privileged to talk to Mrs. María José Torres, who gave us an insight into her role as the UN Resident Coordinator of Malawi. It was enriching to see how our course work in Global Politics is applied in the professional world."  - Pénélope

 

"The presentation was very interesting as it allowed us to have an inside perspective on the work developed by the United Nations. ... I believe it was a great experience to apply the topics we learn in our Global Politics class to a real-life example and having someone that is within the field clarifying our questions and further developing the topic." - Alice

 

"I believe that in Friday's class I experienced a wave of hope. I was soothed to hear that the UN is making a change in smaller countries such as Malawi. ... I believe that my perspective of the UN has definitely improved, as I am more conscious to what extent they can actually get involved in these human rights and political problems. In addition, Mrs. Torres shared her insight on the problems that Malawi is facing. I can happily confirm that this experience was one that I will keep dear to me as it gave me a reason to hope for the future of humanity." - Carolina

 

"It also opened my eyes to how the UN works more realistically, as it cannot change systems immediately, and lasting productive change takes longer." - Matthew

 

"I found her presentation to be fascinating as it took me out of a Western focused mindset, and allowed me to better understand the struggles dealt with every day by people in Africa in general and Malawi in particular. I also gained an understanding of how ground-up development works concretely, and how this can be implemented in states such as Malawi." - Jonathan