You may have heard that Bessie the traveling bear is currently staying with Dame Bradbury's School to raise awareness of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals amongst our young learners.

When Bessie heard about the Cambridge Model UN conference that had been organised by 6th Form students at SPF, she was eager to find out more. An interview was arranged with Klara, the CamMUN General Secretary, and Bessie came prepared with questions she wanted to ask.

Bessie supports UN Global Goal #16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions and was pleased to see that the basis of the conference was to promote and discuss peace and safety.

Bessie: Why did you want to get involved in CamMUN?

Klara: It was important for me to build, and be part of, a community within the school which thought more about wider international issues. CamMUN created a platform which enabled us to take action on a wider scale. A crucial part for me was to build relationships across the globe with other schools, further building on the local relationships that we have with Cambridge schools.

Bessie: How  did you tackle the subjects of peace and safety during your Cambridge Model UN debates?

Klara: We took a bottom up approach to ensure that peace and safety, in its various forms, were explored across all the six committees. Examples included discussing the maintenance and development of fisheries in a post-conflict state, the importance of freedom of expression for journalists and addressing gaps in safety and peace in terms of human rights more generally. Another key aspect is to act on issues before they really begin to worsen and become a dangerous reality. Safety and peace feed into absolutely everything.

Bessie: What can we do to help bring about peace and safety for all?

Klara: Everyday kindness and actions, no matter how small are the building blocks for peace and safety. We must see people’s differences as something to embrace and not be scared of. If people feel valued in a society as themselves, then they will be less inclined to create conflict. Sadly conflict does exist in the world we live in, but what we can do is react positively and create a better outcome. In the face of conflict, we still have a choice and power to make something positive out of the situation. You can be a voice of peace and equality no matter how bleak the situation is.

Bessie and Klara believe that we should live in a world where there is peace and safety for all.

You can follow Bessie's adventures on the Dame B's Twitter account or find out more about her and her fellow bears (there are 17 in total, each representing a different UN SDG) on the traveling teddy bear website.