World Heritage Day is a chance to visit monuments and heritage sites in order to learn and remember culture and history.
ICYE actively looks for ways to provide opportunities for our volunteers and organisations to exchange knowledge and experience across cultures.
While looking for a way to reflect about and commemorate 2023’s World Heritage Day, we were touched to read about UNESCO’s theme for 2021 which was “Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures”.
<<The history of a place can involve many points of view. The conservation of cultural heritage requires careful examination of the past, and its practice demands provision for the future. In recent years, debates on certain narratives, and particular stories over others, have come to the forefront. Addressing difficult and often contested histories involves complex conversations with different stakeholders, avoiding biased views and interpretations of the past.
The World Heritage Convention (1972) states: “deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nations of the world”. However, imbalances in recognition, interpretation and ultimately, conservation of various cultural manifestations continue to exist.>>
We have a question for our current and past volunteers, while you were abroad: what monuments and sites did you visit and what difference did they make in your journey?
How did these visits influence your learning and your understanding of the place where you were living and the people you were living with?
We look forward to reading your answers ❤️