As I sat in the audience at a roundtable on Oct. 24 in Almaty, titled UN Day – 80th Anniversary of the UN, I found myself quietly amazed. The hall was filled with people from different backgrounds, fields, and generations, all united.
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As the speakers shared their reflections, one phrase in particular stayed with me.
“We are way beyond our limits to growth. Local is global. Global is local,” said Brendan Duprey, director of the Sustainable Development Research Institute and professor at Narxoz University.
The words held a paradox in simplicity but endless expansiveness. They reminded me that the global challenges we often speak of in large and abstract terms begin with something as small and tangible as the choices we make each day.
From the classroom to the real world
When I was in school, we often spoke about these very ideas. I was part of the International Baccalaureate program, where sustainability, UN goals, and social projects were part of how we learned to see the world. We held Model UNs, simulated diplomatic negotiations, and believed deeply in the power of collective dialogue.
Back then, the UN felt like something distant and extraordinary, a place where wise professionals gather to decide the fate of nations. I imagined them as people who had figured out how to live, how to act, how to keep the world at peace.
Years later, standing among people who carry that same mission in their everyday work, I realized something quietly profound: those people are us now. We are the generation that once dreamed of contributing to the global good, and we are now the ones trying, in our own imperfect but passionate ways, to make it real.
When inspiration becomes action
There is a unique kind of magic in the moment when inspiration turns into action.
For me, it began when I started attending and covering events like this one. Listening, writing, and documenting these efforts became my way of contributing as a form of participation that felt authentic to who I am. Every time I step into a hall filled with people discussing how to make the world fairer, safer, and more sustainable, I feel a belonging.
It is the same sense of connection I once felt as a student, filled with curiosity about global institutions such as UNESCO and the WHO. Except now, it is not about observing them, but being part of the ongoing conversation they represent.
The bridge between the global and the local
What struck me most about Duprey’s phrase is how true it feels in our interconnected world.
Global goals can only exist because of countless local actions. The fight against climate change begins with one tree planted, one habit changed. Peace begins with a single honest conversation. Equality starts with a moment of empathy.
And at the same time, every local story we tell becomes part of the global narrative.
This is what it means to live with global consciousness, recognizing that our smallest actions can ripple across continents.
Becoming part of the story
As the event ended, the participants lingered to talk, exchange ideas, and share experiences. I watched as young volunteers took photos, as speakers smiled warmly at students who had come to listen. It struck me that these small gestures are what sustain the larger mission of the UN.
We often imagine history as something written by great figures, but every time I realize that it is built daily by ordinary people who care enough to act.
I thought about my younger self – the girl who dreamed of working for an international organization, unsure if she would ever belong in that world. And I wished she could see that belonging doesn’t always arrive in grand moments.
A world a little kinder
Eighty years after the founding of the UN, the ideals of peace, sustainability, and cooperation remain as vital as ever. What gives me hope is the grand vision alongside the quiet persistence of people everywhere who keep trying.
Each of us, in our own way, becomes a small part of that mission. We contribute through action, through empathy and through the stories we tell.
