The Middle East Culture People’s Conservation Collective (MEPCCC) is a collaborative initiative involving multiple partners, convened by IDS and implemented in Egypt, Iraq and Syria through generous support from the Cultural Protection Fund of the British Council.
The MECCC focused on supporting young people in Syria, Iraq, and Egypt to preserve the cultural heritage of marginalised religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities within their communities.
This heritage includes oral stories, interviews, photos, and videos capturing dances, languages, festivals, music, and religious traditions—many of which are at risk of disappearing due to conflict in these regions.
The project trained young people in digital archiving, teaching them how to use technology to save and store these cultural treasures, ensuring they are protected for future generations.
The project focuses on heritage gathering within communities in three countries: Syriac Orthodox communities in Syria; Copt communities in Egypt; and nine communities in Iraq (Armenian, Chaldean, Turkmen, Sabean-Mandaean, Syriac Orthodox Kakeyîs,Assyrian, Shabak and Yazidi). The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) convened the project in partnership with: the Refcemi, Coptic Orthodox Office of Advocacy and Public Policy (UK); the University of Duhok, (Iraq) the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Apostolic Churches (Egypt); the Syrian Orthodox Church, Syria.
Together, they worked to ensure oral histories, practices and all that makes life worth living is kept alive, even during challenging times.
The project recruited almost 100 Heritage Gatherers (HG) across communities in Egypt, Syria and Iraq and worked with several dozens of other young people in different leadership capacities.
Also, conceiving of heritage as a living resource, there were 652 number of community sessions held to create the space for members of the community to discuss how heritage affects their wellbeing. The sessions reached 1,393 people of all ages in Syria and 594 primarily women and local leaders in Egypt.
Additionally, the project worked with five teaching staff from the University of Duhok to create, facilitate, accredit and teach the heritage course in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Peace and Human Rights. The teaching staff also worked directly with the heritage gatherers between August and December 2023.
By the end of the first year, the HGs held community presentations to share the heritage outputs they collected with the public at open events attended by various community members.
Additionally, the HGs used social media, specifically Facebook, to publish some of the heritage they collected and to raise awareness about the importance of gathering and preserving heritage.
A total of 17,257 photos were collected, making up 92.6% of the total outputs, highlighting the visual richness of the heritage captured. They also produced 359 interview files and 916 videos, showing a focus on oral and visual storytelling.
In addition, the Heritage Gatherers created 14 vlogs (0.075%), 80 oral history files (0.4%), and 4 digital stories (0.02%), reflecting a diverse approach to preserving intangible heritage.
As part of a collaboration between the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, and the University of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Handbook of Iraqi People’s Heritage was produced, documenting, gathering and preserving the rich tapestry of culture within Iraq.
The handbook includes personal narratives and excerpts from individuals interviews from nine communities across Iraq, including: the Armenians; the Assyrians; the Chaldeans; the Kakeyîs; the Sabean-Mandaeans; the Shabak; the Syriac Orthodox; the Turkmen of Tal Afar; and the Yazidis.
All data has been saved on multiple hard drives at multiple sites (in-country and in the UK).
To find out more information on the MECCC contact Professor Mariz Tadros [email protected]
