PROJECT DETAILS

Thematic Priority: Encouraging tourism, cultural and natural heritage Implementing institutions: Lead Partner: Kosovo Foundation for Cultural Heritage without Borders, CHwB Partner: Foundation for development of small and medium enterprises - Skopje Website: http://chwb.org/kosovo/ Duration: 24 months Project value: EUR 348,285.00 EU Contribution: EUR 294,078.00 Co-financing: EUR 54,207.00 Kosovo and FYROM are no exception in the shared common history and rich cultural heritage of the Western Balkans, yet, the political climate in the Balkans has at times hindered the process of acknowledgement and acceptance of common values. Cultural heritage is widely seen as means for strengthening cooperation between communities and building social cohesion while aiming sustainable economic growth through joint efforts. Despite the large number of monuments of cultural heritage in Kosovo and Macedonia, the role of cultural heritage in social, cultural and economic development remains small. The number of employees in the tourism sector is very low. Kosovo's GDP comes only 3.6% from tourism while for Macedonia the share is 5.2%. For most of cultural heritage sites, the public knows very little about, including the local and international tourists. Most of these buildings are inaccessible, closed to the public, while the open ones do not provide enough information about their history and values. There is a lack of basic information including the name of the building, the protection status and the schedule of visits. Furthermore, these sites do not have any relation or connection between them. Institutions were not able to make any thematic interrelationship between different sites, although they might origin from the same period, belong to a same style or interpret a same story. Mother Teresa is a global symbol of love and peace, but her life is often subject to biased interpretations, resulting in tensed rhetoric among some communities in Kosovo and Macedonia. Utilization of a Cultural Route that shows Mother Teresa’s early years would bring an opportunity for the sites related to her early life to be officially evidenced. Additionally, all relevant actors would sit together and reach an agreement on the historical facts surrounding her life. The concerned actors would act as a platform for cooperation and look into the opportunities of what their partnership can bring in terms of improvement of wellbeing of the community and share the responsibilities for the management and operation of the route. The actions proposed for the operation of the Cultural Route will substantially contribute towards the stimulation of sustainable economic growth and the improvement of the quality of life for the communities of the affected municipalities through the promotion of culture for generation of employment opportunities, creation of new businesses, development of the labour skills and relevant competences of the community in running small and medium size businesses. The preliminary search that we have conducted show that the sites that are subject to the early life of Mother Teresa extend in the region covered by this call for applications, more specifically the municipalities in the City of Skopje and Cucer Sandevo Municipality in FYROM and the municipalities of Viti/Vitina and Prizren in Kosovo. Overall objective: Contribute in strengthening the cooperation between the institutions, the CSOs and the community in Kosovo and FYROM through recognition of shared values towards joint economic growth Direct Beneficiaries: Cross border community Business organizations – SME and CSO Touristic service providers Municipalities other travel agencies, citizens, visitors Results: Cultural Route Mother Teresa Stakeholder Group Created One booklet (1000 pieces) for sites related to Mother Theresa Promotional video to be produced showing the restored sites of the Cultural Route Mother Teresa restoration works on minimum 2 sites of cultural heritage along the Route cultural heritage sites related to Mother Theresa mapped in the cross border municipalities of City of Skopje, Cucer Sandevo, Viti/Vitina and Prizren 60 people trained on Elements of the Cultural Route Mother Teresa” GIS database with information on sites of interest created