LARKANA: Speakers on Sunday emphasized youth engagement to safeguard Moenjodaro, Makli and other heritage sites in Sindh.

They were speaking at the concluding session of a two-day youth active citizens workshop titled “Curing the Culture and Heritage” organised by the Sindh Community Foundation (SCF) in collaboration with British Council.

The participants, both men and women, were trained in the concepts of citizenship, cultural diversity, threats to world heritages sites, global protocols of the world heritage, role of youth and activities to engage young people in the conservation of the world heritage sites in Larkana and Thatta.

A poet and SCF head, Javed Soz, shared with the participants that the foundation was piloting a programme for promoting youth engagement in the cure and prevention of the World Culture Heritage at Makli and Moenjodaro. Both sites had poor safeguards and lacked citizens’ attention and ownership, he said.

He said the youth visiting those sites had not sensitization on the importance as to how to cure them. He said behavioural change towards preserving and conserving those sites was quite important, he said.

Culture heritage education must be promoted among youth and students with the support of the government and non-government organizations, he added.

Hedaya Gharaibeh of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural-Italy via online also discussed Global Protocol of conservation of the world heritage sites. She said the role of youth in the preservation of the cultural heritage should be encouraged and it was the need of hour to promote heritage education. She said the heritage preservation was not concerned only about the identity, but also it also related with the global collective identity.

She also demanded that such workshops needed to be organized to engage youth towards art and culture.

Riaz Manglo trained the participants on the role of active citizenship and their role in safeguarding the culture heritage.

Young participants Junaid Dahar, Sapna, Sanam, Tamseela and Abdul Shakoor in their presentations said that really had changed their horizon of thinking and motivated them to play a role as youth towards heritage. They pointed that uninterrupted electricity supply and non-availability of public transport from Larkana to Moenjodaro site paired with effective security arrangements and safe drinking water were the major issues.

The visitors and researchers did not stay there due to the paucity of such facilities, they said and called for translation of Unesco guidelines in Sindhi language.

The youth participants also designed social actions to run an awareness campaign, including face-to-face and digital-based heritage education.

Social activists Niaz Muhammad, Aisha Agha, Nusrat Chandio, Umer Gul Buriro were among the speakers who stressed heritage education for youth.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2021