News
Youth Start Digital Conversations about Heritage
Social media can be a powerful tool to engage youth around the world. The young members of NET-MED Youth working within the media group in Palestine could not agree more. They took action by publishing photos and stories online to tell everyone around the world about the importance of heritage to all generations.
"I took a photo of the Church of Saint Porphyrius. It is the oldest active church in the city of Gaza, and it dates back to 425 CE," says, Motaz Alaaraj, a young member of the NET-MED Youth media working group. “I wrote about the importance of this Church, then posted the story and the photo on Facebook and Instagram using #unite4heritage.”
During an intensive one-hour session blogging and engaging in social media, a group of 10 young Palestinian journalists, bloggers and media activists from different media-oriented youth organizations showed their support for UNESCO’s #Unite4Heritage campaign.
The social media activity came as one of the highlights of the Week of Heritage in Palestine. The one-hour session was organized as part of the #Unite4Heritage campaign by NET-MED Youth, on 4 November 2015. The activity aimed at encouraging youth to talk about the value of their cultural heritage, their identities and their sense of belonging in order to spread messages of unity, tolerance and solidarity.
The Networks of Mediterranean Youth (NET-MED Youth) project is implemented by UNESCO and funded by the European Union. It aims at mainstreaming youth issues and priorities across national decision-making and policy implementation in eastern and western Mediterranean countries by building the capacities of youth and youth organizations and promoting their active engagement in the development and implementation of national policies and strategies on youth, ensuring that youth issues are adequately covered by national and regional media and by identifying workable models for improving youth access to employment and youth inclusion in different sectors.