Students learn about nuclear disarmament

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This article was published 10/11/2022 (1241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The youth of today are not taking the threat of nuclear annihilation sitting down.

On Oct. 14, local students took part in the Youth Nuclear Peace Day of Action at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Along with a full slate of panels throughout the course of the day, students from Miles Macdonell Collegiate, Collège Louis-Riel, and across Winnipeg made presentations on various aspects of the issue.

Avinashpall Singh, a River East Collegiate alumnus and one of the organizers of the event, was pleased to see the response.

“It was a day of learning, discussion, and action all relating to the topic of nuclear disarmament,” Singh said, adding that, “REC students, under the guidance of Christine Robinson, continue to be involved in world issues just as extracurricular activities are making a full comeback in our schools.”

Robinson, a library resource teacher at River East and the school’s UNESCO facilitator, accompanied a delegation of four students to the event as observers.

“We came to it a bit late, so we came to it as observers,” Robinson said. “We’ve been talking about ways to support our Ukrainian students, so when this was presented to us, for me, that was one of the things I was thinking about as a teacher.”

Robinson’s children, Chloe and Ash, also students at River East, both attended the event, along with classmates Colin Okhmatovski and Guinevere Wiebe.

“I have lots of Ukrainian friends,” Chloe, a Grade 11 student, said. “They talk about these things sometimes.”

“It was a great learning opportunity for something I didn’t have a lot of prior knowledge about,” Ash, a Grade 9 student, added. “I’m interested in the environmental aspect of it.”

Both Chloe and Ash relished the opportunity to connect with like-minded students from other schools and divisions.

“It was really interesting to listen to other students and learn from them,” Chloe said. “It was inspiring.”

“The thing that stuck with me most was having those conversations with other students from other school divisions,” Ash said. “It was an amazing opportunity.”

“It was inspiring watching students have those deep conversations about such huge world issues and topics, and watching them plan what they could do in the future to address the issues,” Robinson said. “That action piece was really interesting.”

Moving forward the UNESCO group at REC would like to become move involved in action, both within the school community at River East and beyond.

“If it happens again next year, or in the future, It would be important for our school to participate,” Ash said.