In this third year of existence of the program, hundreds of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 from 21 member cities of the OWHC have the opportunity to explore the notion of heritage with open-mindedness and tolerance. Thus, twelve twinning projects are taking place right now, in sixteen countries and three languages.

In the French language portion, students from Dakar (Senegal), Ghardaïa (Algeria) and Québec (Canada) are twinned respectively to young people from Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Porto (Portugal) and Strasbourg (France).

As far as the English portion is concerned, schools from Krakow (Poland) are associated with establishments in Segovia (Spain) and Vilnius (Lithuania), while educational institutions from Morelia (Mexico) found their twins in Nesebăr (Bulgaria) and Québec (Canada). Exchanges in English are also taking place between Banská Štiavnica (Slovakia) and Galle (Sri Lanka), between Kutná Hora (Czech Republic) and Sintra (Portugal) and between Rhodes (Greece) and Yerevan (Armenia).

Finally, the students from Aranjuez (Spain) and Puebla (Mexico), like those from Cordoba (Spain) and Vigan (Philippines), correspond in Spanish.

A program full of richness
It should be noted that, thanks to Youth on the Trail of World Heritage, groups of young people discover their family heritage and are introduced to local heritage, before discovering the world’s heritage. The twinning allows the students from different countries to share their ideas, their knowledge and their work on this issue. They thus become aware of the universal value of their heritage and the challenges set by the management of heritage on the global scale.

This program is open to the schools of all the cities that are members in good standing or observer members of the OWHC, without any financial contribution on their part.

You wish to participate in it? Why not? For further information, contact the person responsible for the Youth Programs for the OWHC, Ms. Chantale Émond, at [email protected].

Program Youth on the Trail of World Heritage 2006-2007 >>