Briar Students Meet United Nations 'Human Rights Hero'

Briar students participating in this year's Junior Ohio Model United Nations had a one-of-a-kind experience on Thursday, February 19. They met with Harold D'Souza, a recipient of the distinguished Human Rights Hero Award from the United Nations at its New York headquarters.

Mr. D'Souza shared with the Briar students his story of how he was a victim of labour trafficking when he moved from India to Ohio, how he and his family became survivors, and his mission of hope.

He is a very humble person, even though he has a plethora of honorable accolades, including working with President Barack Obama when he was appointed to the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking in 2015, and continuing his service on this council until July 2020. He also received several awards, including the Liberator Award, the iCan award, "Heart of the Father Awards 2022", "Rashtra Perna Award 2021" (from India), and the 2023 'Human Rights Trailblazer Award' from the UN.

These awards were given to honor his role in activism for human rights, his survivor leadership working with other survivors of trafficking, his concern for other people and their rights, and his dedication to the global fight against labor trafficking. He has also written a book about human trafficking.

Upon introducing himself he said he was a friend and to feel free to ask him anything we wanted to ask him during his visit. Students asked him questions, such as how he got out of his own trafficking circumstances, how he felt when he won his award that he brought with him, and what it was like working in the White House.

The students were able to hear his story and also share some of their plans with Model UN for this year.

The Briar group representing India this year asked about the water situation in India, since Mr. D'Souza is originally from there. Their resolution is to harness the power of water by building a dam system in the major rivers of India to create more electricity for the power grid, provide a filtering system to clean the water and collect the trash, allowing for cleaner water not only for the people of India but also for the organisms living in the water, and turn the collected trash into recycled goods.

Mr. D'Souza was impressed with this resolution and said he will take the group's final ideas back to his homeland, possibly turning this idea into a reality. How cool would that be?

It was a very exciting visit, and we were honored to have him join us at one of our meetings.