Tag Archives: Africa
A new partnership for HERITAGE and SoFIA
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) and the School of the Future International Academy (SoFIA) are joining forces to support education and heritage management professionals in The Gambia. With their expertise in adult training and competence development, the two organizations will organize a series of activities to enhance the skills of professionals in the fields of education and culture.
The first goal of this partnership is to provide tailor-made mentoring programs for school leaders to develop the essential skills they need to succeed in managing their educational institutions. Through the initiative, school leaders will also become familiar with the importance of promoting and preserving the cultural heritage of their local communities and the country as a whole. They will be encouraged to collaborate with cultural institutions and groups in their area to promote the significance of understanding and promoting culture.
The collaboration will also include heritage management professionals working with local education institutions to create an open, inter-generational dialogue between people who are interested in promoting the value of cultural heritage in their communities. Participants will receive support on how to effectively interpret and teach local History and Culture in the curricula of their schools and in cultural spaces in their area.
“Our network in The Gambia is very extensive, and it is important that it becomes useful for the benefit of the country. It is for this reason that we have partnered with SoFIA to ensure that the country’s secondary education sector benefits from their services, as that sector is crucial for the improvement of heritage management in the country. We are very proud to launch our collaboration with SoFIA with Latrikunda Upper Basic School (LKUBS), The Gambia,” said HERITΛGE Director Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis.
Generally speaking, this collaboration is an effort to map the landscape for culture and education professionals in The Gambia trying to provide them with training and support aiming to improve the way their institutions operate. It is worth mentioning that The Gambia is just the first stop of this collaboration and that both organizations aspire to reach as many professionals as possible in more countries in Africa.
HERITAGE’s partnership with SoFIA elevates the visibility of the HerMaP Gambia intervention efforts, co-funded by the European Union.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: SMALL GRANTS FOR AFRICAN HERITAGE PROJECTS
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) is launching a new call for concept notes for small grants ($5000-$50000) for organizations, groups, and individuals working with heritage in Africa.
The grants are part of our Heritage Management Project – Africa (HerMaP-Africa) which is funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program. They will fund projects that focus on the protection of and/or promotion of local heritage for socio-economic development in the continent.
“We are looking to untap the potential of heritage in Africa, in order to make a difference for the development of local communities, “ said HERITΛGE Director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis. “Heritage has the ability to empower and we are ready to partner with local organizations around the continent to this end.”
Applicants will have to demonstrate that their project addresses one or more of three criteria:
1) Sustainability – Our focus is on projects that will have a lasting impact, much beyond the duration of the project, for example protecting heritage sites from desertification by creating green belts, preserving/stabilizing/restoring and adaptively reusing a historic building for community needs, researching the public heritage landscape, installing solar panels at heritage sites to generate income or decrease expenditure in the long term, building eco-friendly tourism infrastructure, direct interventions that strengthen social institutions, like traditional methods of mediation, etc.
2) Capacity development and network building – We encourage projects that strengthen local skills and build closer links with peer organizations in the HERITΛGE network. Examples include on-the-job training in preventive conservation (e.g clearing or fencing sites), experience and expertise exchanges with other local NGOs on shared issues such as desertification or erosion of sites, co-operative training on museum exhibition design, etc.
3) Concrete and community impact – We encourage projects with strong, measurable incomes in terms of heritage protection and benefits to local people. Each project should provide clear indicators of the planned impact. These indicators will depend on the type of work carried out but some examples include increased visitation to a heritage site or program, financial benefits to the local community in terms of increased employment opportunities or local businesses created; tourism earnings; money savings by solar panel installation; the size of area protected from desertification, etc.
To apply for these grants please complete the concept note application form you will find here.
About HerMaP-Africa: Made possible by a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program, it aims to strengthen HERITΛGE’s Africa programs, fund initiatives that link heritage with socio-economic impact, develop the capacity of local organizations, and help them preserve African heritage and culture.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the United States. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through its grants, it seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
HERITΛGE and the Mellon Foundation Partner to Expand Africa Programs
HERITΛGE trains professionals in a number of African countries, including The Gambia
$5 million grant to strengthen HERITΛGE programs, including $1 million in small grants to organizations in Africa and a $450,000 fellowship program for heritage leaders
The Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) joins forces with the Mellon Foundation to strengthen its country-specific programs and fund initiatives that link heritage with socio-economic impact, developing the capacity of local organizations in the African continent and help them preserve their heritage and culture.
“Heritage is much more than monuments and is potentially a very important sustainable resource for education, local pride, and economic and cultural development. It could become a key ally for peacebuilding, reconstruction, development, and social inclusion,” said HERITΛGE Director, Dr. Evanghelos Kyriakidis. “Yet the cardinal importance of the African continent in this field is not fully recognized. We have joined forces with the Mellon Foundation to address this challenge.”
The Mellon Foundation support will enable HERITΛGE to grow its ongoing capacity mapping and development program, identifying the current strengths and needs of the heritage and culture sector, its institutions, and the professional bodies in Ethiopia, where it is currently operating a pilot program partly funded by the UN’s Economic Commission. It will also enable HERITΛGE to launch country-specific programs for Ghana and Rwanda.
The $1 million regranting program will provide small grants to African groups and organizations for heritage projects and to support culturally-focused socio-economic development. An additional $450,000 has been earmarked for a fellowship program aimed at African leading practitioners while HERITΛGE will also provide capacity-building and advisory services to projects and key stakeholders on the continent.
“This bold initiative will create opportunities for expanding and innovating heritage practices across Africa and provide significant resources to directly support local projects, organizations, and leaders on the continent,” said Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place program officer Justin Garrett Moore. “HERITΛGE’s program has the potential to engage and benefit local communities, the broader African diaspora, and the entire world–as African heritage is an essential part of our shared history and world heritage.”
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the largest supporter of the arts and humanities in the United States. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
HERITΛGE in the news
HERITΛGE teams continued delivering online and in person workshops, training heritage professionals around the world, as well as contributing to the global heritage debates.
HERITΛGE work in Africa and beyond was featured in Athens Voice, Greece’s premier free press weekly. AV spoke to HERITΛGE director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis. Read the interview [in greek].
Finally, HERITΛGE director, Dr. Evangelos Kyriakidis, spoke to Greece’s public broadcaster ERT and its 2nd Program radio station during the annual European Heritage Days celebratory weekend. Speaking to journalist Ioanna Niaoti and #namaste, Kyriakidis explored themes such as why cultural heritage is important, the threats it faces and paradigms from around the continent.
Listen to the program here.
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