Malappuram youth to address United Nations General Assembly

MALAPPURAM: Malappuram native Abdul Gafoor Kunnathodi has got a rare opportunity to address the United Nations General assembly on Friday after he won an international essay contest conducted by the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) this year. Though his travel to New York did not come through because  of  technical snags, a pre-recorded video of his short speech will be played before the august gathering of the UN assembly on Friday.

The programme will also be broadcast live through UN web TV along with the translation in six official UN languages.   Mr. Gafoor, a research scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, is one of the three Indian winners of the third edition of the 'Many languages, One World' contest conducted in six languages. His Arabic essay on cultural understandings, global citizenship and multilingualism made him the only winner of the annual UN contest from south India.

Mr Gafoor, an alumnus of Darul Huda Islamic University in Chemmad in Malappuram has been pursuing his doctoral research in Arabic linguistics at JNU. "I have been invited to attend the Global Youth Forum at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York and had got a chance to speak at the General Assembly of the UN. But for technical reasons my trip to New York did not come through. However I am happy that my voice will be heard in the prestigious UN assembly," Gafoor said. Sixty students from 36 countries and 54 universities have been selected as the winners of the 2016 contest from a pool of over 3600 contestants.