Time to Revive World Heritage

By Erik Christoffersen and Carsten Skjoldborg, Ungdomsbyen (Youth Town)

From October 2010 to March 2011, several hundred young Danish and Arab people from UNESCO ASP-schools worked together at comfu.org to make their World Heritage sites vivid and relevant. In March 2011 55 of these young people met for a week in Denmark. Two students, one teacher, and an ASP-coordinator from each of the nine participating Arab countries – and the Danish participants - came to Copenhagen to give presentations, experience, discuss, work, learn and have fun together.

Comfu.com – across borders
The ground work at comfu was a great success. Several hundred young people were active in connection with RWH. More than one hundred blog posts were written, for example, and 128 videos were uploaded. However, a further scrutiny shows that it was mainly students from Lebanon, Oman and Palestine who were very active. Jordan participated somewhat, whereas Egypt, Syria, Bahrain and the Sudan remained inactive.

The reasons for this may be many. A top-down system, difficulties with the technical challenges of uploading videos, and/or some doubts as to what the assignment was.

Preparations for departure
Getting tickets and visas for 38 participants from nine different countries is no simple task. Filling out individual invitation forms, Schengen-visas, additional forms, information, contact to travel agents, embassies and consulates took weeks.
There was suspense up to the last minute. But miraculously - in spite of visa trouble and demonstrations in several countries – all participants made it to the conference – on time.

Danish participation
The Danish schools proved less "easy". Originally two high schools and seven primary schools were involved in the project, each represented by a teacher and two students. During the autumn several schools dropped out, and it was decided to increase the number of participants from the schools which stayed in the program. However, it must be pointed out that other primary schools did a great job of hosting the visitors.

The Youth Conference
The program had the following elements:

Visits to World Heritage sites: Kronborg, Roskilde Cathedral and the Jelling Monuments hosted by Helsingør Byskole, Billesborg School, and Juelsminde School and Bredager School.
Presentation of various parts of the ground work at comfu.org
Writing and performing a show about the Intangible Cultural Heritage

The result
The week far exceeding expectations. All countries gave presentations in relation to the assignments. However, only two participating countries had executed the assignment which constituted the main idea of the project: "Reviving World Heritage" through a dramatization of en event in relation to a national World Heritage site.
Oddly enough it was Syria and Iraq, who had not been active on comfu. They had dramatized and filmed historical events, among those events relating to Palmyra.
The school visits and visiting the Danish World Heritage sites was a great experience and the atmosphere among the visitors was excellent.
The creative work with the Intangible Cultural Heritage was also a success. 34 students from 10 countries produced a fascinating show within a 24-hour deadline. Quite a challenge! See Comfu.org
The video above and the subsequent speech by a Syrian teacher are perhaps the best way of illustrating the value of the project.

Before I start my presentation I'd like to express my feelings in a short comment. As you know, yesterday my students introduced their presentation about Zenobia the Queen of Palmyra.
When I started working with my students on our project Zenobia the Queen of Palmyra, I intended to feed off this great opportunity to pass a message and I think I got it through your reaction to the presentation.
Since I believe there isn't much one can do with buildings, stones, architecture or ruins unless they are associated with the human dimension beyond them, i.e. heritage always passes messages to the upcoming generations so that they can reinvest in developing and approaching their present and future positively.
And I'm leaving for my country Syria after two days with a very important message that must be passed to everybody and particularly to my students. I think peoples in many different countries are the victims of lots of prejudice and misunderstanding.
Here in Denmark I have discovered a very important WHE-site which we all must be responsible for, that is love and a human face. That's why I would like to thank the UNESCO team for such important meetings which have helped to clear the hearts and remove a lot of misunderstanding and sorrow.

Thank you
Thana