UNESCO Funds Youth Leadership Training In Heritage Preservation and Protection

Jamaica held a World Heritage Workshop ‘Youth Leadership Training in Heritage Preservation and Protection’ to create an awareness of World Heritage in Jamaica and to build capacity among its young people from the different parishes. The workshop is organized to be held in two phases. One in Kingston and the other in Montego Bay . The recently concluded Kingston workshop was held from 25-27 April 2015 at the Knutsford Court and catered to 44 participants most of whom stayed on site.

The presenters, led by Dr. Janice Lindsay, who sits on the World Heritage Committee, and Ms. Himalchuli Gurung, Programme Specialist for Culture in the UNESCO Caribbean office, were all very knowledgeable and gave well prepared presentations. The young presenters, Marlon Walcott and Oshane Robinson, both of the UWI, were very impressive.
For this leg the Kingston participants visited the Blue and John Crow Mountains and Port Royal. The former is on the submitted list
and the latter is on the Tentative List.

The responses from the participants were affirming. Comments ranged from “feeling empowered, informed, a great learning experience, interesting, inspiring”. They also expressed the view that the workshop was well organized and that the content was interesting. They also expressed the wish that JNC-UNESCO would stage more of this kind of workshops for capacity building among the young people.

The Hon. Minister, Lisa Hanna, was on hand at the conclusion of the Training, to present the participants with their Certificates of Participation. She was pleased that UNESCO had sponsored this training for the youths. She told the group, “You are an exclusive group of young people who can make use of this opportunity in heritage training and know what is in Jamaica’s best interest in having a heritage site and so move Jamaica forward as the cultural superpower it is.”

This workshop was conceived as part of fulfilling Jamaica’s mandate as a member state of UNESCO and received funding through the UNESCO Participation Programme.