HAMPI KARNATAKA

Located in the central part of the state of Karnataka, in the southern part of India, Hampi is definitely one of the most interesting travel destinations on the map of India. It is famous for its ruins belonging to the erstwhile medieval Hindu kingdom of Vijaynagar, now declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The temples of Hampi, its monolithic sculptures and monuments are breath-taking. The Hindu style of architecture found at Hampi speaks of the splendour of the Vijaynagar Empire.The workcamp in Hampi is a World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) project and is coordinated by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) and within the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Programme. As part of UNESCO, the World Heritage Centre (WHC) deals with questions related to World Heritage. One of the programmes of the WHC is the World Heritage Education Programme (WHE) which deals with activities aimied at sensitising young people about World Heritage.The main objective of the WHV workcamp in Hampi would be to spark interest among the local community by involving children and international volunteers in activities that promote sensitivity and respect towards the World Heritage site in Hampi. Work camps in Hampi will concentrate on the protection of the cultural heritage and the sites of historical importance and on creating awareness among the locals, school children, tour-guides and tourists. In 2010, 2011 and 2013, FSL-India organized the World Heritage Volunteers camp in Hampi with the cooperation of UNESCO i World Heritage Center.The project s aim is to raise awareness among the school children from in and around Hampi. FSL India will organize activities for the school children within the boundaries of World Heritage Site to organize following activities:A. Clean up activities around the monuments in Hampi, which is most visited by tourists and Pilgrims. The objective is to spark interest among the local community by involving local and international volunteers in activities that promote sensitivity and respect towards the World Heritage site. B. Preparation of Nursery: Planting coconut and mango saplings at the nursery. One child will be identified to look after each sapling. It would be a good activity to address this change and involve the local children to plant trees and teach them to look after them till they can survive. C. Organizing Drawing competition for the school children and opening it up to local people by setting up an open gallery. Involve local Authorities, Guide Association, teachers, and any other potential local partners. This would help build partnership for later work.D. Awareness Walk/ Street Play with locals i The volunteers and locals will prepare a skit on heritage conservation and environment issues. The Street Play involves imparting of messages on Heritage conservation through acting and miming. The Awareness Walk will be a procession in the main area and we will spread messages on ecology, hygiene and conservation.E. Initiate active participation of youth by encouraging school children to become Young Guardians / Ambassadors of the Heritage site. To achieve this, we will form a Heritage Club in the school.