Read about Fasial Mooraby's experiences at the JCI Global Partnership Summit 2011 in New York City.

JCI is an incredible organization that offers extraordinary opportunities of making its members active global citizens. The JCI UN partnership summit is a typical example.

The JCI UN partnership summit 2011 focus, like in 2010, is on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDG, initiated by former UN Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, has eight main targets which must be achieved by 2015. The eight goals set and agreed by 23 countries are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality rates
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

The United Nations recognizes the potential of JCI and has acknowledged the contribution that our organization can contribute to achieve these targets.

What fascinates me is not only how I, as member of JCI, can contribute positively towards a better world, but also how my active participation and contribution in the MDG can also nurture my leadership and business skills. This fact applies definitely to all the 300+ participation at the summit.

New York
It's my first time in New York and so far it has impressed me deeply. Although skyscrapers are not exclusive to the United States anymore, it has to be noted that New York has had them for more than a century. The Empire States building is even more iconic when you see it for real, and especially at night. The pencil shaped building stands up majestically in the city - and so do many other buildings.

Format and speakers
The summit was held at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan New York. The summit itself consist of 4 days, with the first day consisting mainly of registration and an opening ceremony. On the other days, we were privilege to hear from different speakers working on the Millennium Development Goals. The quality of speeches were excellent, highly motivating and sometimes highly emotional, and covered areas such as UN initiatives/activities, Social Entrepreneurship, Businesses working on MDG and Health NGOs in Africa

On Day 3, delegates were split to work on three main topics towards creating a JCI resolution. The level of participation by delegates was amazing. It was an experience to learn from the amount of stories, experience, ideas and certainly reminders of discipline on how to achieve targets. On the final day one of the VPs presented the final resolution to the delegates and I am certain that the majority, if not all, we satisfied. The closing ceremony was held at the United Nations HQ. It's not everyday and certainly not everyone can attend a closing ceremony inside the UN HQ (not in the public area), but JCI has given me such a privilege and I am grateful.

Such an event is very useful for JCI members to attend because the opportunities that are available are relevant in many aspect of life.

Networking
The first obvious reason is obviously to network with other professionals, aspiring leaders and partners to JCI (for example UN officials present). However, the JCI Global Partnership Summit also offered the opportunity to bond with these individuals, which makes it even more useful as a networking event.

Develop your business skills
Although the event is related to the UN MDGs, which many may associate to activism or politics, many of the skills and ideas I acquired from the event are related to business (for example Team work, Decision making and SMART Planning). Also, it is important to bear in mind that we cannot have a healthy business in an unhealthy community - as one of the speakers put it. Businesses are realising this more and more and so should aspiring business leaders.

Create positive changes
There are certain things that money cannot give you and one of these is the reward for the heart (as I call it). Making someone's life better will certainly give you this. It does not have to be someone on the other side of the globe and it does not have to be a big thing. One of the things I was impressed with this event is the willingness within myself to look for ideas to make the world a better place. Many of my colleagues over there thought the same.

Fun
Yes! Fun! It has to be fun certainly because fun increases the level of enthusiasm within us and also make the above points even more effective. I have made friends with people of different cultures, nationalities and professions. I was enthralled by the overall experience. The fun part of the experience, whether it's going out or simply exchanging jokes, will make this summit a memorable one forever.

-Faisal Mooraby, JCI Reading

Read more of Faisal's experience on the JCI Reading blog