Some of our staff recently had the opportunity to go to China. How come? I asked our mobilization and communications strategist Hailey Mitsui-Davis.
Hailey at the Great Wall of China
Hi Hailey! So you and a couple of other Invisible Children staff recently returned from a trip to China. What were you guys doing out there?
Ben, our CEO, Maggie, who works in our development department (so with donors), and myself (because I work a lot with clubs), were invited on a fully-funded visit to to a model UN conference in Beijing, China. It was for international schools, so there were high-schoolers from around the world. I think there were 80 different countries represented there – and they’re each advocating a different issue. Ben was doing the opening address, so that’s why we were there.
How were you guys received by the young people at the conference, and how much did they know about Invisible Children?
A bunch of kids came up to us afterwards and told us that Ben’s was the best opening address that they’d ever heard. Most of those students go every year, and across the board everyone said that Ben was the most motivating person they’d heard speak. I think his story probably resonated a lot with those students because he talked about how he was on the track of investment banking and had this life-changing moment when Jason [our co-founder and CCO] asked him to go to Uganda. A lot of [the young people there] have parents who are investment bankers or international business people or diplomats – that’s why they live internationally – so I think they really could identify with his story. They’re achievers, just like Ben is. You had to ask them three things: where were you born; where do you live now; and where do you consider ‘home’? Because a lot of these kids are like “well I’m a Swedish citizen but I spent until fourth grade in Colorado, so I think Colorado’s home, but now we live in Taiwan.” These kids usually switch countries about every two years, so they’ve been all over, which is a really unique perspective for a 15 year old to have.
Maggie (far left) and Hailey (far right) with some of the students who were at the conference.
It was also cool because it was my first experience of talking to someone that was like, “Oh yeah, I was in Nicaragua when I saw KONY 2012“ or “Oh yeah, I was in Bangladesh.” So these are people that had seen KONY 2012 internationally in countries where we’ve never toured or had a known supporter. Obviously not everyone had heard of [Invisible Children], but a couple of years before they had done a special KONY 2012 unit in their model UN to talk about international advocacy, so they were very much aware of us. They asked really good questions – they’re high school kids who were a really impressive and engaged and informed audience.
Did you see much of China?
Maggie and I got there three days early, so we wandered around Beijing. We went to the Forbidden City, we went to the Lama Temple…! Honestly, we were really proud of ourselves as we learned how to navigate the subway system even though we have no idea how to read Chinese at all. There is a lot of English there because the Olympics were there in 2008, and it is a pretty international city. We ate a lot of interesting food…one food was…fuzzy. It was this dessert, and people were lined up around the block to get it, so we were like, “if all the locals are super excited about this then we have to try it!” So we tried it, and it was terrible! It was some sort of pastry…like dough, pretty flavourless. Then on the outside was cream from like the inside of a doughnut, but that was also pretty flavourless. Then the adhesive on the outside was…fur! There’s no better way to say it. It was like cotton-candy fur, with a terribly semi-fishy flavouring. After the conference we got to go to the Great Wall. It is as overwhelmingly amazing as you think it’s going to be. I was a little worried that I’d be disappointed, but it’s magnificent. It’s so big and goes as far as you can see in both directions.
Hailey (left) and Maggie trying some local food.
What were your big take-aways from the trip?
We knew when KONY 2012 went viral that half the views were coming internationally but I don’t think that we have ever really grasped what that meant. To meet people who were saying “I was in this country or this country or that country” when I heard of KONY 2012 – that was just huge to me. I feel like I got, even more so, a bit of a taste for how global the movement is. Also seeing how the students have made friends from all of these different countries at these conferences. The cultural insight that they get at such a young age is just…so normal to them! I think at moments they are like “this is really cool that we get to see this,” but I don’t think they quite understand how beneficial it’s going to be for them. I guess it was just a little taste of what we always say as the Fourth Estate: of countries not knowing bounds…and just being friends and advocates for each other. These kids get that, because they’ve seen that there isn’t a difference, and they have best friends from all over the world – and most people don’t. That was pretty cool.
Anything else you want to tell us?
Another fun fact is that it was Ben’s college buddy that works for an international school there, which was the connection and part of the reason we got invited. So again – it’s the power of friendship. You never know where people are going to go and where it’s going to lead you.
Shout out to all the staff and students the Beijing Model United Conference – Ben, Maggie and Hailey loved hanging out with you guys. Thanks to Mr. Colin Aitken and family who invited Invisible Children and were wonderful hosts.
From left: Ben, Tiffany, their host Mr. Colin Aitken, Maggie and Hailey
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