From 11th to 14th November 2019, 40 students and 52 teachers from 14 different countries, met at Lycée Michel-Rodange in Luxembourg to participate in the Megalux conference.
They celebrated the opening of the Erasmus+ MEGA (Make our Environment Great Again) project, which has started this year, and at the same time the closing of the former Erasmus+ HOPE (Human Opportunities for Peace in Europe) project, which had started in 2017.
The Megalux conference contained many different activities. The main part was a shortened MUN (Model United Nations) conference, which took place from 12th to 13th November. Both days 11th and 14th November were dedicated to workshops about environmental sustainability.
To begin with, we would like to explain what happened during the two days of the MUN conference. The MegaMun had two different committees: first, the HRC (Human Rights Council), which discussed the issue of Water as a Human Right, and second, the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), which discussed the issues of overfishing, preserving marine biodiversity and water pollution.
On the first day, each of us delegates met with their co-delegates in their committees. We needed to present our opening speeches, the so-called policy statements. The rest of the day, we spent with lobbying, which means we were looking for a resolution with other delegates. The main submitters presented their draft resolutions, we started writing amendments and debated on those.
The second day, we continued with the improvement of the draft resolutions until 1 pm. Then all the delegations met at the school’s library to debate on the two final resolutions and to prepare amendments to improve those. This procedure is called the GA (General Assembly). Fortunately, the two resolutions were discussed and improved until finally both passed.
The other two days were dedicated to workshops about environmental projects. The first workshop was about clothes upcycling. Two Lycée Michel-Rodange’s art teachers introduced various methods to us students how we can upcycle our old clothes instead of throwing them away. We created handbags and key chains out of old t-shirts and jeans.
The second workshop was a video-clip workshop. We divided into three groups to create three different video clips. The video clips should raise awareness about sustainability. One video addresses adults/teachers/headmasters, the other concerns the students and the third one raises issues to local governments.
All in all, as delegates ourselves, we can say that Megalux was one of the best experiences we had during our HOPE career. We hope that the MEGA years ahead will be as amazing as the past HOPE years. We are very thankful that our projects gave us that many life experiences and new friendships. Therefore, we encourage other students to join our club and be a part of the MEGA community.
Best wishes from our LMRL Eurofoxes,
Laura MARX (3CC1) and Julie RIX (2DG2)
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