AU program helps African nation preserve its history

September 05, 2008

September 4, 2008

Athabasca University’s Heritage Resource Management Program is hosting two scholars from Mozambique. Emanuel Dionísio and Teodato Nguirazi will spend the next two months taking courses and studying best practices at several heritage sites throughout Alberta. Four Mozambiquan scholars will take part in the program over the next two years.

The Canada-Mozambique Heritage Internship Project is the latest effort from AU to build on a partnership established in 2005 with Mozambique’s Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and the Ministry of Education and Culture. The project is supported with international development funding from Alberta’s Wild Rose Foundation.

The southeast African nation is one of the poorest countries in the world, but has become a focal point of tourist industry investment. Development is intensifying along the country’s pristine Indian Ocean coastline, home to many environmentally, culturally and physically sensitive historical sites.

The goal of the program is to help the Mozambiquan scholars return home to lay the foundations for effective legislation, educational programs and policies aimed at protecting these sites.

“We’re very excited to help our partners in Mozambique take the lessons learned here in Alberta back home and apply them to their own historically significantly sites,” says Dr. Frits Pannekoek, president of Athabasca University. “Alberta and Mozambique share a commitment to culture and understand the role history plays in strengthening a sense of identity.”

For more information contact:

Dr. Don Wetherell
Director
Heritage Resource Management Program
Email: donaldw@athabascau.ca
Phone: 1-866-380-5287

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Updated August 21, 2012