Opening of the UNESCO WHV Viscri Action Camp 2024
Alba Eglesia Foundation and its partners, Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation, “Heritage for the Future” Cultural Association and the Viscri Council will run the project Viscri Action Camp 2024 between 16th and 30th of September.
The project is part of the World Heritage Volunteers Initiative within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme.
The village of Viscri belongs to the UNESCO Site Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania:
- Official link of the Site on the UNESCO website: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/596
- Country: Romania
- Date of Inscription: 1993
- Significant modifications to the boundaries: 1999
- Criteria: (iv)
- Property: 553 ha
- Buffer zone: 3,727.87 ha.
Young volunteers aged 18-32 from Romania, Germany, Italy, Iran and Bangladesh will carry out field activities in the village of Viscri together with local children. The project encourages volunteers to propose and develop educational activities blending traditional methods like local visits, crafts, and creative workshops with modern approaches utilising technology, including AI.
This combination of methods will be tested with Viscri’s children, with the outcomes compiled into a collection of ideas as the project’s main deliverable. Volunteers will search for local resources that have the potential to be used in heritage education while raising awareness among the local people about the need to teach their children about the significance of cultural and natural heritage.
This hands-on approach provides volunteers with a rich learning experience, enabling them to test ideas in real-life scenarios, utilise local resources, adapt to the community’s context, and draw inspiration from the children.
The ideas, activities and content prepared by the volunteers will be important not only for the local population in promoting heritage to the young residents of the village but also other similar rural communities that also want to instil in the younger generation the curiosity and passion for cultural and natural heritage.
Besides the heritage education activities, volunteers will also support the ongoing conservation work by improving the signs and indicators for tourists’ orientation within the village. These new signs and indicators will guide the visitors and tourists to find the most important heritage locations and items in Viscri. This activity will demand coordinated team efforts to plan, build and deploy effective signage, of great importance for both locals and people coming to the village.
Founded in 1996 in Viscri, the Alba Eglesia Foundation is dedicated to supporting the sustainable development of rural communities in southern Transylvania.
Operating in a region rich in history and diverse heritage, we address the needs of multi-ethnic communities, including Romanians, Roma, Saxons, and Hungarians, striving to create an ecosystem of development involving various stakeholders, raising awareness, empowering all age groups, and emphasising formal and informal educational methods.
Cultural and natural heritage, part of southern Transylvania, drives our efforts. As a UNESCO Site, Viscri calls on the responsibility to leverage heritage for inclusive development. Heritage not only generates income but also stimulates social cohesion, preserves local identities, and encourages community involvement, making rural communities more united and sustainable.
Our recent participation in the 2022 and 2023 Viscri Action Camps revealed the potential of engaging youth in heritage preservation. Inspired by these 2 previous projects, our mission is to promote and support heritage education, aligning with our dedication to preserving Viscri’s tangible and intangible heritage for future generations.
We are looking forward to collaborating with the new cohort of volunteers from 2024 and we thank all of the candidates who have applied for the open call for volunteers in the previous months.
We thank our partners, Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation, “Heritage for the Future” Cultural Association and the Viscri Council for their support and contribution to the organisation of the project. This project is supported by the National Commission of Romania for UNESCO. We thank the National Commission for their support.
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Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation is dedicated to preserving the local heritage and reviving the villages and communes of Transylvania and Maramureș, two of the most historically and culturally rich areas in Europe. In short, our mission is to bring local communities in Romania back to life by preserving the cultural and natural heritage whilst encouraging multicultural integration and local economies. We apply an integrated approach to sustainable development. It involves and empowers local actors, contributing both to the preservation of the authenticity of the heritage and to its harmonisation with the needs of the community. (source here)
The “Heritage for the Future” Cultural Association is a non-profit organisation, following in the footsteps of the “Friends of the Minovici Museums” Association, established in 2005 (this had as main objective to improve the situation of the two Minovici museums – folk art and mediaeval art). The “Heritage for the Future” Cultural Association takes care of the Romanian heritage, actively supporting its preservation. We believe in the future because it is highlighted by the past. We are proud of our involvement in cultural projects that aim to map Romania’s tangible and intangible heritage. (source here)
Viscri Council is an informal body made of representatives of various groups within the village of Viscri, Brasov county, Romania: women’s association, farmers, crafters, producers, cattle owners, local business owners, church priests, youth, elderly people, NGOs, etc.