A cultural cooperation programme based on popular stories from around the Mediterranean in the of Governorate of Bethlehem entitled ” The role of libraries in passing on oral heritage: stories in the Maghreb, Middle East and Provence“. The aim of this project was to:
- Develop Palestinian oral heritage as the basis of the Palestinian community and its cultural identity
- Consolidate the COBIAC’s action with libraries with which it has been working since 2005, to encourage them to become involved in preserving and disseminating oral heritage as well as developing working as a network
- Reaching out to a wide audience and fight against social exclusion and cultural isolation.
This was carried out thanks to the support of the European Commission and the Bouches-du-Rhône General Council and was implemented in partnership with the Al Rowwad Cultural association and Theater Training Center, a cultural player at Bethlehem’s Aïda refugee camp. It included two events: a conference in Bethlehem, “Stories, tomorrow’s heritage, the role of libraries” in April 2008 and a story-tellers’ festival bringing together Palestinian and French story-tellers in October 2008. It was completed by workshops to teach how to tell stories and collect stories in the Bethlehem Governate’s area. It was the selection of the best marvellous stories collected, with the precious advice of Dr Sharif Kanaana, which led to the publication of 9 illustrated bilingual French-Arabic stories in Palestine, France and Algeria.
Partners:
Main partner: Al Rowwad Cultural Association and Theatre Training Center (Palestine); Associates: Bethlehem Governorate (Palestine), Tamer Institute (Palestine), Bouches-du-Rhône General Council (France), Le Petit Lecteur d’Oran (Algeria); Support: European Commission (West Bank & Gaza Strip Delegation), Bouches-du-Rhône General Council.
To get more details about the steps of the process, you are welcome on the COBIAC website : http://www.cobiac.org/-gouvernorat-de-bethleem-projet-
