In early February, Riverside Brookfield’s Model United Nations club, or Model UN,  will be attending a large conference at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago from February 4 to 7, their biggest conference of the year. The model UN club will replicate United Nations meeting, representing different countries. In this meeting, Riverside Brookfield will be representing Lesotho.

“In terms of preparation, we meet weekly, so usually Tuesday mornings, to do research” Model UN sponsor Erin Cunningham said.

It has been slightly difficult for Model UN to get information on Lesotho.

“With Lesotho being a developing nation,” Cunningham said  “Only 5% of their population has internet access. Their government website keeps crashing when we try to access it, whether that’s us causing that, or just that they don’t have the infrastructure to keep it running at all times.”

However, Model UN has been making attempts to overcome this difficulty.

“Two students did email a senior information officer from the country of Lesotho, so someone who actually works in the Ministry of Defense,” Cunningham said. “They emailed her to see if she might respond and give some information.”

The fact that Lesotho is such a small country has helped and burdened Riverside Brookfield in finding research.

“On one hand it’s easier because it’s such a small country, there’s not a lot of information, but it also makes it a little bit difficult to decide Lesotho’s position on some of the topics because there just isn’t anything out there,” Cunningham said.

When the competition finally does come around, Riverside Brookfield and the Model UN will surely be prepared.