ARTICLE22’s goals could not have been more closely aligned with our trip to the United Nations 2024 Sustainable Development Goals Summit, hosted at the UN Headquarters in New York.

This experience allowed me to step outside my world and the issues I struggle with. Perspective motivates me to work passionately for an organization that seeks to aid those requiring adequate governmental representation.

Before my work at ARTICLE22, I was ignorant of the number of lives taken from bombs dropped over 40 years ago. Under SDG 18, UN countries impacted by unexploded ordnance, including Laos, are aiming, by 2030, to ensure that annual casualties from UXO accidents are eliminated to the extent possible and that all UXO survivors have their health needs met and are economically supported. The ability to attend the UN and sit around the table with ambassadors allowed me to learn about the process of demanding aid for civilians affected by political events.

My work for ARTICLE22 as the Sustainable Development intern is to highlight our role in UXO clearance. Each product uses the materials cleared from bombs to create precious fine jewelry. While governmental intervention is required, the US lacks awareness of the importance of bomb removal.

LAUREN MORGANLANDER, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INTERN

I couldn’t help but think “how did I, a 21 year old business development strategy intern, get into this room” as I sat fidgeting with the bangles on my wrist made from the UXO’s the delegates conversed about so formally. It was as if this conversation about the catastrophic legacy of a secret war, claiming the lives of many, was an average Monday morning conversation.

Passion flooded into the conversation as soon as Bounthanh Phommasathit, representative of Legacies of War and survivor of the US Secret War in Laos, fired off for her allotted few minutes about the life she lived in the unexploded ordnance-polluted Laos. Her story was powerful, emotional, and I wanted more than anything for the representatives in the room to have solutions for her concerns about the ongoing issue of UXO’s, unmarked landmines covering Laos.

What I took away from being in this room, was that everybody needs a spot in this conversation. Whether or not it affects the land you live on, it’s an ongoing issue and this is where the beginning of the solution is. Sustainable Development Goal number 18 strives for “Lives safe from UXO; remove the UXO obstacles in national development”. I’m so honored to have been in the room to support this ongoing discussion at the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, and I hope more people find themselves amid this important conversation.

ALLY EDDY, BUISNESS DEVELOPMENT INTERN