28 January 2022
Within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Initiative was launched in 2008 in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) to mobilize and involve young people and youth organizations in World Heritage preservation and promotion.
Since its inception in 2008, the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Initiative has constantly endeavoured to bring together youth and communities towards the protection, preservation, and promotion of World Heritage, beyond the constraints of geographies and cultures. Never though has the challenge been greater, and the need more acute, for the valorisation of World Heritage, than in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left these sites vulnerable and adversely affected. It is not just the physical nature of the sites that has been impacted, but there has also been a loss of livelihoods for the communities whose lives are intrinsically linked to their heritage.
The pandemic has indeed highlighted the importance of carrying out community development hand-in-hand with World Heritage conservation, but it has truly been the resilience of the WHV organizations over the past couple of years, that has mobilized these efforts and actions towards World Heritage and carried forward the spirit of the Initiative through this period of global crisis.
It has been heartening to see the creative solutions adapted during the past Campaign, which helped overcome the many constraints of the pandemic and continued youth engagement in both remote and in-situ formats. It is in this context that we are pleased to launch the Call for Projects for World Heritage Volunteers 2022 "Resilience and Re-mobilization towards World Heritage", in recognition of the continued efforts of the WHV organizations, and in the hope of welcoming new actors into this dedicated community. The theme of this year’s Campaign is also aptly timed as we celebrate 50 fruitful years of the World Heritage Convention in 2022, paving the way for a new era of heritage, rooted in the resilience of its past.
In order to get involved in and/or renew your commitment towards the protection, preservation, and promotion of World Heritage through the WHV Initiative, please fill in the online application: https://bit.ly/WHV-2022-Application or download the application from the following link: https://bit.ly/WHV-2022-Application-Form and send it to [email protected] (for projects in Africa, Arab States, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean), and to [email protected] (for projects in Asia and the Pacific), with a copy to the World Heritage Centre ([email protected]; [email protected]).
Please submit your application by 20 February 2022 at 23:59 CET (Paris Time), at the latest.
Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/call-for-projects-for-world-heritage-volunteers-2022-resilience-and-re-mobilization