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The United Nations Association of Jamaica (UNAJ) will celebrate its 60th Anniversary next year. They are broken down in Chapters throughout the island, and the executive office is in Kingston at the UNDP Building.
UNAJ is a UN-designated Peace Messenger Organization and has consultative and/or working relations with UN Agencies, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education of Jamaica, and several organisations sharing its interests in development, disarmament, education, environment, human rights and population issues.
One of their annual projects is the UN Model Assembly. Students are selected from over ninety-five junior and secondary high schools and tertiary institutions throughout the country, and they are trained to participate in this Assembly, which is held at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
UNAJ participates every year in the United Nations International Schools Conference (UNIS-UN) held at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York. Students from across the world attend this event, including over five hundred young people from Jamaica, who are members of the youth section of UNAJ.
Following the WFUNA’s Buenos Aires Declaration of November 2006 that encourages UNAs to establish UN Youth Associations (UNYAs) throughout the country in which the UNA operates, UNAJ has recently established one at the University of the West Indies and in several high schools. They are working to expand it to other Jamaican universities next year.
UNAJ provides outreach programmes for young and old people. For example, they work with other local organisations to provide a hot meal for those who need assistance, and they have a “Care Giving Programme” for the elderly.
Dr. Lucille Buchanan, President of UNAJ, has recently been recognized by the American Biographical Institute as one the “Great Women of the 21st century”. The reference book includes under 1,000 notable women, with Dr. Buchanan, who is a former vice-president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, recognized for her humanitarian efforts.
UNAJ visited WFUNA Secretariat in New York on March 4, 2008. They met with WFUNA Secretary-General, Pera Wells, and talked with WFUNA interns about current issues and events at the UN Headquarters.
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