As part of their visit, the students met with Director-General of UNON Ms Zainab Hawa Bangura for a mentorship session. During their time together, Ms Zainab shared her inspiring leadership journey with the students, who also presented their leadership dreams and goals as students. Grade 4 student Abigail Adongo shared the weekly activities of the World Leaders Club – an extracurricular activity at the school for Grades 1-5 students that helps students develop their public-speaking, debating and leadership skills and helps them become more knowledge about current affairs – which was greatly appreciated by the team at UNON. 

  

The students also had an opportunity to ask Ms Zainab questions that sparked a fruitful discussion. They enjoyed their time with her, with Grade 3 student Audrey Aluoch and Grade 5 student Hawi Mwaniki expressing their gratitude for Ms Zainab’s time and appreciating how much they learnt and how inspired they were. 

  

“Today, I had the distinguished honour to receive the World Leaders Club of the Aga Khan Academy, Nairobi - Junior School to the United Nations complex in Gigiri,” Ms Zainab said. “During the Q&A, they asked me some great questions like, ‘What was my inspiration to be who I am?’, ‘What are some of the challenges I faced while getting to this position?’, ‘What do I think about people who claim to want to change the world?’. I have received many visitors as Director-General of UNON, many of them heads of state or government [but this] was one of my best days. These children, ranging in age from [Grades 1-5], inspired me greatly.” 

 

After their time with Ms Zainab, the students then toured the UNON complex.