Armenia is going to enter the third millenium with saved and restored historical monuments of Armenian Christianity. This point is getting topical at the celebration of the 1700 Anniversary of Christianity in Armenia in 2001. Thus, the problem of preservation of cultural heritage by the youth as future decision-makers becomes extremely important.

In 2000 Armenian Information Community Centre joined the Matyan – project of the Youth Initiatives Support Center (YISC) of the Armenian Federation of UNESCO Clubs. In recent years AFUCA together with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and Department of Youth of Georgia organized a volunteer camp on the territory of the Monastery complex of Havoutstar (XI-XIIIAD). An international group of representatives from two countries ameliorated the area of the complex, cleaned the architectural materials and placed signs with the names of those landmarks.

The success of this project, with the friendly atmosphere of the camp and plenty of new relationships, makes the AITCC and YISC enthusiastic in their efforts to enlarge this project and include a number of new participants from other countries

This new AITCC/YISC program is carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. The projects purpose is to arrange meetings for informal collaboration and communication of representatives of different cultures, getting to know the rich Christian culture of Armenia, cultivating attitudes towards heritage. Also we hope that engaging professional historians and sociologists in the program will help us to achieve our goals. One of the most active participant in this project is the oldest club of AFUCA - The Matyan Organization.

Project objectives: To clean and ameliorate the areas of some historical-architectural monuments which have been passed on to us through the centuries. To instill in young people the importance of cultural and natural sites, involve them into World Heritage Preservation Program. To develop a sense of responsibility towards this heritage among youth and encourage dialogues between young people of different cultures and countries as future decision-makers. Help the young people discover the messages of ethics and civilization embodied in World Heritage sites, encouraging their respect to other cultures through volunteer ameliorated work and discussions, which would stimulate the interest of young people for the World Heritage "philosophy". Tourism has both positive and negative effects on historical sites, and we aim at teaching a form of "cultural tourism".

The project is supposed to be located in 15 camps in 3 regions of Armenia. They will include the Monastery University complex, fortresses, churches and temples of Pre-Christian and Christian periods (1-13cc.). The camp will be 10 days long, set in Armenia's most beautiful lands, lovely spots near historical monuments. Each group will be accompanied by a physician, a historian, and an alpinist, led by the organizers who have experience of working with such programs.

Also, UNESCO Division of Youth and Sports Activities supports us in the project by donating camping equipment.

Young people will have a chance of working in direct contact with people from other countries, as well as hearing lectures about Armenian heritage and traditions. We plan to arrange hiking trips touring places of interesting historical monuments, such as the unique Khosrov reserve forest, and so on.

We also plan to make a number of photo-stands and films that will promote respect for the cultural and natural heritage of Armenia and other countries.