UNESCO WHV 2019 – Let’s Heritage at Rani-Ki-Vav, India

World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) 2019 – Empowering the Commitment to World Heritage. The WHV 2019 campaign provides empowering and enriching opportunities to young people and enables them to go beyond borders in some of the most outstanding places in the world. Volunteers will work together to preserve natural and cultural sites, as well as to raise awareness among local communities about their heritage.

The World Heritage Volunteers Initiative is led by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), the European Heritage Volunteers (as a branch of Open Houses) and Better World. For its twelfth year, 68 action camp projects will be implemented at 62 World Heritage properties and sites inscribed on the Tentative Lists, from June to December 2019, by 55 organizations in 36 countries.

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Rani-ki–Vav is an exceptional example of a distinctive form of subterranean water architecture of the Indian subcontinent, the stepwell. Initially built as a memorial in the 11th century CE, it was constructed as a religious as well as functional structure and designed as an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water.

The project is the pioneer of a nationwide, four site campaign extending the outreach of the first ‘Let’s Heritage’ project run at Rani-ki-Vav in 2017. It aims to promote heritage preservation among youth and local communities, documenting and spreading examples of active participation, stimulating a sense of responsibility and connecting international and local people with the site management and conservation authorities.

The participants will organize and take part in different awareness raising actions, from heritage walk to classes, quizzes, musical evenings, camp fire, discovering food, paintings and art performances with local youth, school students and community representatives. They will also prepare a documentary about the camp’s activities to promote the site and youth involvement in heritage protection across different social media platforms. Scheduled visits to various heritage sites across the city, handicrafts and museums. Heritage Talk show will feature experts delivering insights about Indian Heritage.