MALAPPURAM: Two young research scholars from Malappuram who won United Nations-sponsored international essay competition have got a rare opportunity to speak at the UN General Assembly hall on July 21 in New York. Abdul Gafoor K.T. and Mansoor Pulloor, winners of the ‘Many languages, One world’ international essay contest conducted by the UN Academic Impact (UNAI) in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, the official languages of the UN, set out to New York on Saturday.
This year, four students from Kerala have won the United Nations-sponsored international essay competition. Thiruvananthapuram native Muhammed Shareef, a research scholar from JNU, and Palakkad's Ashham Saleel, a BEd student of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, will also address the conference. All the four winners from Kerala contested in Arabic, and their address will also be in the same language. They will also speak at the Many language One world Global Youth Forum to be hosted by the Northeastern University in Boston, along with 60 other winners from 27 countries.
Abdul Gafoor K.T
The event includes an all-expense-paid trip to Boston and New York City. They will present action plans related to UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Mr Gafoor, a doctoral research scholar in Arabic linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, is a native of Ponmala near Malappuram. Mr Pulloor is a research scholar in Arabic at Calicut University. Both of them are alumni of Darul Huda Islamic University in Chemmad. “Our speech will be on cultural understandings and role of government and non-governmental organisations in promoting multilingualism in India,” Gafoor said in an online chat from Germany on his way to Boston.
