`Heritage in Peril` video for schools

Din l-Art Helwa yesterday presented copies of video sets of its TV series, Heritage in Peril, to Education Minister Louis Galea to be distributed to every school in Malta and Gozo

As part of the distribution of money raised in The Times Mnajdra Fund Appeal, which had been set up by the newspaper after the act of vandalism at Mnajdra a year ago, and in keeping with its aim to educate the public and raise awareness of Malta`s heritage, DLH is providing around 165 schools with a complete set of the videos.

The Mnajdra Fund Appeal raised Lm20,000, and the video set was the first of a series of heritage-related initiatives that DLH has decided to spend the money on.

DLH executive president Martin Scicluna explained that the video, Wirt fil-Periklu, which is in Maltese, consists of 13 half-hour episodes, divided over four video tapes. The subjects include the story of DLH; the natural environment and urban areas; threatened heritage; and culture and tourism.

Each set of videos comes with a Teacher`s Guide, which highlights the main points in each episode, allowing teachers to pick the appropriate subject they intended to cover.

Heritage in Peril has been professionally produced and researched by DLH. It is a fundamental part of the heritage NGO`s educational campaign, following the Mnajdra vandalism.

The videos are considered to be an effective, educational tool to illustrate what Malta has today and what the Maltese stood to lose if it were not cared for and conserved, Mr Scicluna said. They address every heritage and environment issue facing Malta in an objective and graphic way.

There has been much demand from schools for the series, and history teachers, in particular, were expected to find it useful, Mr Scicluna said.

The series, which was broadcast on TV between June and September, was produced by DeeMedia.TV, and the money raised from the Mnajdra The Times campaign financed the copies that are being distributed to the schools.

Mr Scicluna said half the money raised would go towards educational campaigns in schools, while the other half would go towards restoration projects.

The second part of the educational campaign, following yesterday`s presentation of the videos, consisted of a CD-ROM, "Malta: a Treasure Trove of History", for schools - an interactive treasure hunt around Malta`s historic sites. It would be ready in a couple of months and would probably be distributed to schools at the beginning of the next scholastic year.

DLH was also pursuing its goal to get the public to understand the importance of learning about their heritage and "learning to love it" through Teenagers DLH, the scouts and guides, and DLH`s National Heritage Map.

"The generation currently at school and university are our vital hope for the future. If we do not get the message across to these young people that their heritage matters, then, as a nation, we are truly in deep trouble," Mr Scicluna warned.

He augured that teachers would take advantage of the educational tool not only to teach children about their heritage, but also about their civic responsibilities to protect it.

The minister will be writing to headteachers of state, independent and Church schools to encourage them to make use of the video in the appropriate classes, which the National Minimum Curriculum accounted for.

While expressing his appreciation for the initiative, Dr Galea said the Cultural Heritage Act was going through its final stages in parliament yesterday and was expected to be published in the Government Gazette during the course of the week.

Once it was enacted, DLH has been promised that, under the Guardianship Deed, the properties it had restored would be transferred to it.

DLH is currently preparing a management and conservation plan for each property to inform the minister and the Museums Department how it intended to run them.

Dr Galea also said that by summer, the international tenders for the design of the entire Mnajdra and Hagar Qim site would be issued. The idea was to build protective tents over the monuments, as well as a visitors` centre and facilities and the creation of a heritage trail.

Regarding the vandalism at Mnajdra, Dr Galea said investigations were still open because although the police had well-founded suspicions, they had no proof with which to nail the perpetrators of the crime.

The set of videos is also available for sale to the public from DLH at Lm12.50.