September 29 marks the National Day of Cultural Heritage—the day when we all respectfully commemorate restorers, architects, researchers, and scientists, folklore handlers and handicraftsmen, who have contributed in shaping and studying our heritage, to bestow it to future generations as a testimony of our national identity.
To celebrate this day, Cultural Heritage without Borders – Albania, organized a Heritage Atelier with preschoolers aged 4-6. The children of Kindergarten no. 1 in Kruja had the pleasure to discover a kind of weird building for them. It had no windows, a round roof and very old washstands, so they were quite surprised by the hammam. Some months ago another group of children had visited the hammam, while it was being restored, and now their companions visited the restored building.
Cultural Heritage without Borders – Albania believes that cultural heritage is not just an issue of professional debates, which concerns just the grownups. Cultural Heritage has always been a vector to discover the world where we belong, and as such it remains an appropriate pedagogic medium for the work with children.
This active inclusion of children affects the understanding of heritage, and as a result, it strengthens the awareness and the feeling that this is something precious. This process is even more fruitful with children, due to the collection ‘E Ka Kush E Ka’, which is a series of children’s books and activities related to cultural heritage. CHwB Albania aims to educate today’s children to become tomorrow’s responsible adults in protecting and promoting cultural heritage.
We think and hope that similar initiatives awaken the interest of children, as well as teachers and parents. Thus they can get to know better the monuments of culture and take care of them. Through education, we will have new generations that are more aware and children with the ambition to become architects, restorers, or historians.
On this commemoration day, Cultural Heritage without Borders Albania representatives took part at the seminar “Women in Cultural Heritage,” which was held at the National Historical Museum. The participants from civil society and governmental organizations shared their opinions on the challenges that cultural heritage faces today. CHwB Albania’s experts explained to them the work that the Foundation does with young people, regarding the preservation of our cultural heritage values.
Cultural Heritage without Borders – Albania, is one of the prominent voices in the country that lobby for the protection, restoration, and revitalization of cultural heritage. Through educational projects, training and field interventions, CHwB Albania has sought, since 2009, not only to restore historical buildings, but also to state its opinion on protecting human rights, reconciliation, and poverty reduction. As the motto of the organization says, “we build and restore relations.”