World Heritage Volunteer 2019: Persian Garden- Persian Qanats, Iran.

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World Heritage Volunteers 2019 Heritage in Our Hand PERSIAN GARDEN & PERSIAN QANAT 20th August _ 1st September Mehriz, Yazd, Iran

Organized by Sarvsaan Cultural Heritage Group

This Document has been prepared by Sarvsaan Cultural Heritage Organization to give a brief report of the World Heritage Volunteer camp 2019, which has been organized during Summer 2019 at PahlavanPour World Heritage Site (Mehriz, Yazd Province, Iran).

The project was part of UNESCO initiated program of WHV and was in close collaboration with Iran Cultural Heritage organisation and local authorities.

© 2020 Sarvsaan CHG RIGHTS RESERVED All rights reserved for Sarvsaan Cultural Heritage Group. Any reproduction in other material requires the permission of the organisation.

‫متامی حقوق مادی و معنوی این کتابچه متعلق به گروه میراث فرهنگی‬ . ‫رسوسان می‌باشد و هرگونه استفاده از آن باید با اخذ اجازه صورت بگیرد‬

Acknowledgement We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the regional organization in Yazd province: Cultural Heritage Organization of Yazd (Mr. Fatemi, Mr. Samadiani), UNESCO-ICQHS (Mr. Ghafori, Dr. Labbaf Khaneiki, Dr. Semsar Yazdi), Pahlevanpour WH office (Mrs. Jelodar-Zadeh, Agha Kazem)) , Mehriz Municipality (Mr. Akhoundi)., Hasan-Abad Moshir WH office (Mr. Kazem Najand ), Yazd Regional Water Organization ( Dr. Javadian Zadeh), Kanoun Parvaresh Fekri of Mehriz, Nartitee Ecolodge and Padiav Ecolodge.

We also express our sincere thanks to the national organizations: Cultural Heritage Organization (Dr. Talebian), Iran World Heritage Committee (Farhad Azizi, Mrs. Sareh Ziaee) and IRNA news agancey.

We also want to put on record our appreciation to Mr. Francesco Volpini director at Better World organization who always supported and inspired us by his help and guidance.

This project could not be successfully implemented without the great effort of our camp leaders: Ameneh Karimian and Niusha Khatami and without heartily engagement of the best volunteers and facilitators!

Index Preface; Nassim Zand Dizari Part I An Overview of the WHV 2019; Nargiz Aituganova, Nassim Zand Dizari, Ameneh Karimian Part II Volunteer Essay (I); Omid Zehtab, Iran Volunteer Essay (II); Giorgia Beneventano, Italy Volunteer Essay (III); Alireza Soleimani, Iran Volunteer Essay (IV); Farzaneh Ghorbani, Iran Volunteer Essay (V); Maryam Sajjadi, Iran Memories Part III The Expectation Tree; Niusha Khatami The Evaluation of the Camp WHV2019; Niusha Khatami Part IV WHV2019 People

Preface Nassim Zand Dizari, Sarvsaan Co-founder and Project Manager

World Heritage Volunteers 2019.

World Heritage Volunteers 2019 was in response to the slogan of 2019 WHV: Empowering the Commitment to the World Heritage, and it was in the continuation of 2017 Persian Gardens and Qanats camps, at the same World Heritage Site: Regarding to the conducted post-camp survey of 2017, we realized there were yet two important realms to foster closer mutual ties with: - Local authority contribution - Local community participation In response to these challenges, we conducted more pre-camp meetings with the local authorities to find a common ground and have closer talks with young locals to plan sustainable activities.

Therefore, during 12 days20 volunteers (including one project coordinator, two camp leaders, one scientific camp leader (local), two facilitators, eight non-Iranian volunteers and eight Iranian volunteers) actively participated in the varied activities including the restoration of the historical building inside the site boundary and designing an interactive toolkit to raise the awareness of the children who visit the site.

Besides the great achievements of this camp, presence of the local short-term volunteers and the final exhibition on the restored space were two remarkable highlights of this camp.

The following document consists of two parts: the first part is a comprehensive report of dayby-day activities and related activity. Second part is the essays written by some of volunteers and evaluation of the camp.

Empowering Youth for Heritage – 10 years of the World Heritage Volunteers initiative WHV initiated on 2008 for the very first time, and 341 action camp took place from that year to 2017. To celebrate ten years of activity, UENSCO published a very comprehensive study on the concept of this initiative and the projects. Sarvsaan was honored to be one of the few organizations to be interviewed directly and two of our projects (2016 and 2017) had the chance to be a part of this publication. Find this valuable document on this link: https://whc.unesco.org/document/182024 Who we are.

Sarvsaan Cultural Heritage Organization was founded on 2014, aiming to introduce and promote “participatory cultural heritage conservation” to the Iranian society. Although participatory activities had occurred before, but they mostly targeted one specific group of community and natural issues. Sarvsaan enhanced the target audience and encouraged young people to take action and cooperate on hand-on activities in the realm of heritage preservation. The Cultural group itself consists of young volunteers who are architects, conservationists and heritage experts.

In the frameworks of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the World Heritage Volunteers initiative is led by UNESCO World Heritage Center (WHC) in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), European Heritage Volunteers and Better World. This programme aims to increase awareness and reinforce youth’s involvement at a local and global level in the implementation of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage:  To raise awareness among young people, volunteers, local communities, and respective authorities regarding the need to protect and promote World Heritage.  Foster cooperation between local youth organizations, communities, site management and authorities.  To get young people involved in World Heritage preservation through concrete projects on sites, allowing them to learn new skills and express ideas.  Identify best practices and develop nonformal education tools to facilitate stakeholders’ participation in World Heritage education.  Provide young people with opportunities to learn basic preservation and conservation techniques.  The World Heritage Volunteers action camps are organized by local youth organizations, NGOs, heritage or education related institutions or other organizations.

An Overview of the WHV2019 Nargiz Aituganova, Nassim Zand Dizari, Ameneh Karimian

The Persian Garden and Qanat World Heritage Volunteer (WHV) camp took place between the 20th August and the 1st September in 2019, after 9 months of planning and several meetings with the local stakeholders and authorities. Held for the second time at the intersection of HassanAbad-Moshir Qanat and Pahlavan-Pour Garden, it aimed to engage more the local population and place more concentration on activities related to children. This year we had the privilege of having volunteers from diverse countries including Hungry, Belgium, France, Italy, Oman, Russia, Spain and Iran. Various work sessions addressing different objectives were organized and implemented during this 13-day camp. In the following sections, a summary of objectives and their associated work sessions are presented.

1. Participatory Conservation of Tangible Heritage The hands-on activities of the WHV camp at Pahlavan-Pour Garden aim to engage a variety of people in the conservation of the tangible heritage of Persian Gardens and Qanats. National and international volunteers together with the members of the local community and the site management were working together for the conservation of these World Heritage sites addressing the concept of participatory conservation: learning and working together to transform heritage site to an enjoyable place for all.

One of the main objectives of the WHV is to create an opportunity for young people and nonexpert audience to contribute to the conservation process of WH-listed sites. We organized two masonry activities to fulfil this desire: restoration of a watermill and a garden’s surrounding wall.

On the day three, we began first with the Asiab (Watermill) of Mirza Nasrollah located at the vicinity of Pahlavan-Pour Garden and its buffer zone. The watermill had been operated by the hydropower of Hassan-Abad Qanat, and still, the Qanat is passing through it. The volunteers were divided into two groups and under the supervision of Yazd Cultural Heritage Organization, one group prepared the vernacular material, Kah-Gel (Cob), to restore the interior walls of the watermill. While the other group were removing the degraded Kah-Gel from the surface of the walls. The vernacular knowledge was instructing through the direct work with the mud, straw, cob and necessary equipment to apply the materials. Meanwhile, non-Iranian volunteers were learning the Persian terminology for each object they were working with, which can be considered as a part of this knowledge. After the restoration of the walls, the floor got cleaned thoroughly and the beautiful floor-bricks appeared again.

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Furthermore, some work sessions were devoted to gardening: removing unwanted plants, trimming the branches and cleaning the surface, as part of the management plan of the Pahlavan-Pour garden.

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As our work with the watermill came to an end, and we tackled to finish all the requested activities, it was time to understand the very crucial technique in the Persian Garden: Chineh. A garden in the buffer zone of Pahlavan-Pour Garden was selected to host this activity. The volunteers started their day by removing the grass to have a clean surface to make mud. And in half-a-day activity they could manage to reconstruct fourmeter of the length of a Chineh wall, with the help of the master of the work.

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2. Raising Awareness towards Intangible Heritage Heritage is not limited to certain monuments and objects; it has an important intangible dimension.

Intangible heritage includes cultural traditions and living expressions inherited from our ancestors and transferred to our decedents in the form of arts and crafts, traditional techniques, skills and knowledge, festivals and rituals. They are the most difficult heritage elements to preserve, especially in the context of the globalization.

World Heritage Volunteer action camps provide a unique opportunity to learn about the intangible heritage and its fragility in situ from the communities. Some intangible heritage elements as kah-gel preparation or chineh building were discovered in this camp by the volunteers during hands-on activities.

During a whole day in Nartitee Ecolodge, the volunteers learned about the Zoroastrian culture and tradition. They had the privilege of joining a private Zoroastrian ceremony including praying, chanting and traditional customs and food. The participants also learned how to bake traditional sweet-bread (Sirok) and helped in trimming the branches of trees in the garden. Furthermore, they visited Zoorkhaneh ceremony inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and also learned to make giveh traditional craft and enjoyed traditional Iranian music and games.

We were also very lucky to be generously hosted

by Mehrizan Ecolodge located In the Mehriz, to try Shooli and Yazdi Coffee (inscribed on the national intangible heritage list), and also listening to a Chawoshi_Khani by our hosts.

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Besides having the opportunity of living in the heritage site of Pahlevan-Pour Garden for 13 days, the participants also visited various heritage sites in Mehriz and Yazd during the camp. including: Water Museum, Zarch Qanat and Dowlat-Abad Persian Garden, Parthian cemetery of Gharbalbiz, Khormiz castle and Ab-Anbar (water reservoir), mother-well of Khourmiz Qanat and most adventurously, down to one of the wells where volunteers had the chance to be lifted down traditionally, to appreciate how people of old days used to work on conservation of Qanat.

3. Cultural Exchanges and Cross-Cultural Dialogue The international composition of the volunteering groups as well as deep interaction with the local community ensures harmonious dialogue between the representatives of diverse cultural identities, working together for Persian Gardens and Qanats conservation at the World Heritage Volunteers camps. The cultural exchanges among the participants of the action camps are constantly happening during hands-on activities, guided tours, coffee breaks, etc.

The numerous exchanges are resulting in the cross-cultural dialogue between the volunteers, site management and the local community by creating peaceful relations of friendship that continues even when the work camp is finished.

Cultural exchanges and cross-cultural dialogues are also conducted by the World Heritage Volunteers at Pahlavan-Pour garden in the form of Patrimonito sessions, which literally means ‘small

heritage’ and covers educational activities dedicated to cultural heritage of the participants’ countries or regions of origin. In 2019, the volunteers presented the cultural treasures of Italy and Sicily, France, Belgium, Morocco, Russia and Tatarstan, Spain and Catalonia, Oman, Hungary and of course, they were immersed into the rich cultural heritage of Iran. This exposure started in the first day when the volunteers had the first experience of communicating with the local population through site visits and in the second day through the expert talks in the UNESCOICQHS, and continued all through the camps during the diverse work sessions and activities.

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4. Improving Sense of Belonging for the Local Community Heritage plays a vital role in the life of the local communities, which is not an exception for the Pahlavan-Pour Garden that enjoys diverse groups of children, youth, adults and elderly people from Mehriz. The hands-on activities of the World Heritage Volunteers action camps are open for the local community, whose members come to join the volunteers in restoring, cleaning and maintenance hands-on activities. These actions are not caused by simple curiosity, but rather by the sense of belonging and willingness to contribute to the conservation of the Persian Qanats and Gardens,

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a vital part of the daily life of the local community.

By opening the hands-on activities, team working and dialogues with the local community, the World Heritage volunteers enhance the proudness and appreciation of the World Heritage sites by the varied communities of Mehriz.

During the camp, the Iran Volunteering Group joined us generously for cleaning the Qanat Model (at the vicinity of the garden), the garden and also the path of qanat in its first appearance point in Mehriz. In addition, individuals from both Yazd and Mehriz accompanied us during the work sessions.

5. Heritage for Children As a tradition, the World Heritage Volunteers at Pahlavan-Pour Garden dedicated one entire day to local children. Because the children are the future leaders and decision-makers of the local community, they must have a sense of belonging and enjoying the cultural heritage, where they are growing up. We worked with Koochar Nature School, who help the volunteers to get through several educational sessions on children pedagogy, numerous hours of brainstorming and testing ideas into a bright set of dynamic, interactive, educational and sustainable activities performed for 50 local children of different ages.

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This year, the “Heritage for Children” workshops were held for 4 days, to introduce a draft activity proposal to the management of Pahlavan-Pour garden, to address this issue that cultural heritage sites in Iran need to be revised to be more interactive and exciting. These workshops were implemented by facilitators from Koochar Institute who are specialised in working with children in these ages. Volunteers were brainstorming and sharing the ideas on the meaning of childhood, the connection of children and cultural heritage, the

necessity of education for conservation of cultural heritage by these young audiences, and the importance of freedom and playing for creating a base for them to understand the environment.

The discussions were directed by the facilitators to design activities by each volunteer, who interactively tried to represent their concerns and attitudes through these playful activities. Being in an international group had also the asset of hearing childhood experiences from different countries. At the end of the day 6, each group walked in the garden to choose their activity spot, which helped them be more accurate about the process.

During the last workshop, each group tried to prepare the necessary equipment for the day after, when the children would have come to the garden to have a fun pedagogical day. As Nafiesh says “This day itself was a pure nature school” since our volunteers themselves were having fun, observation and creativity to touch the environment thoroughly themselves. At the end of the day, the garden was well-prepared and enthusiastically waiting to host the children.

The day after, the garden was full of children and adults laughing with an incredible atmosphere.

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Children learned about Persian Gardens and Qanats in a special way: they constructed boats, searched for the mysterious trees in the garden, collected herbs and stones and depicted their emotions on drawings and mud sculptures. We were planning to design this day in a way that in the future, the site manager and the team would be still able to operate it: sustainability of the activities.

• Through 6 stations which have been positioned all over the garden and interactive activities designed by the volunteers, the children (from 3 to 13 years old), were exploring, finding, collecting, interpreting, and crafting artistic objects using all the elements they would be able to freely use in a Persian Garden and Qanat.

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• Station 3, Painting Dreams: Martina, Maryam and Saskia dedicated a sandy land to a place for floor painting, not with colour but with natural elements and pieces they have already found all over the garden and gathered in big boxes.

The children could choose any spot as a frame, to either start from scratch or complete another painting!

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• Station 1, The Couch: Where Farzaneh and Laila created and hid the stories and children were awarded by a magical and dreamful story about Qanat and Garden upon seeking the papers.

• Station 2, Explore and Craft: A cotton bag to collect, a garden to explore, one spot to sit and collage what you have found as a feather crown, or a leaves skirt! Reza, Maryam and Georgia were spending the previous afternoon and evening to tail the bags and prepare the necessary equipment.

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• Session 4, Magical Raft: The ultimate fun station with Omid, where children used the trimmed woods and cotton strips to make rafts and release them in the Qanat under the Kooshk to pass through the channel and reach the garden.

• Station 5, Mud play: Alireza prepared the cob (Kahgel) from the night before, so they were ready to get shaped by the creative hands of children.

• Station 6, The Maze: We reused the Qanat Model at the vicinity of the garden as one of the stations. A mysterious maze to follow the light and foot-prints, to hide and seeks at the corners and unconsciously understand the structure of the galleries of a real Qanat.

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Volunteer Essay (I) Omid Zehtab

I, Omid, am going to tell you about the great experience we had at the camp in Mehriz. The camp triumphantly provided us with the valuable lessons we have never had in our lives. Getting familiar with incredible Mehriz cultural heritage, restoring the old watermill located at Pahlevanpour garden, making Mehriz a better place for children, and making new kind friends, all, were the valuable experiences we gained together during the camp.

In my point of view, the exceptional part of the camp was the “Children day” through which we could be remarkably beneficial for the local society.

Creation of the ingenious games provided local children of Mehriz with a day full of happiness. I independently made a boat by wood sticks named “Magic Raft”. Then the children were asked to prepare one inspired by the Magic Raft to compete with other children while floating their boats on the water stream of Qanat. A day full of delight and sense of pride was made for kids employing the challenging game.

Honestly; I never forget the moments we spent together stepping on Kah-Gel preparing it for the watermill walls, the kind masters of art, “Ostta”s, guiding us not only as supervisors but also as genius friends, the Partimonito sessions elaborating me about how other nations are concerned with their great cultural and natural heritage, and lastly the moments we were all inside Qanat trying to clean it up. Ultimately, the moments we had together at Pahlevan-pour garden, Nartitee ecolodge, Padiave house, and Zoroastrian ceremony will stick in my mind forever and have dramatically changed my perception of cultural heritage,

volunteering activities, true friendships, and collaborative activities.

Indeed, attending volunteering activities is a significant decision which can be made by wise people throughout their lives.

I miss all of those days, Mehriz, and you guys :)

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Volunteer Essay (II) Giorgia Beneventano

I am Giorgia, an Italian volunteer who participated in the UNESCO World Heritage project in Mehriz (Yazd).

I have studied translation, interpretation and linguistic and cultural mediation for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and I used to work in reception programs for asylum seekers as a linguistic and cultural mediator. I chose to apply for this position through SCI (Service Civil International) because I wanted to shift to a different activity that is still related to my work field, helping those in need, enriching my knowledge, and discovering a new culture. I will never regret that choice, as this project is one of the most stimulating experiences that I have ever had. At the beginning, I was sceptical that my competencies wouldn’t be of any value during the work sessions, however later on, I realized that I was mistaken: our group of volunteers was heterogeneous and the variety of competencies that each individual brought to the table were vital in improving the quality of our work during the sessions. Throughout the project, we followed a complete schedule, which consisted of: - Work sessions (help the master of works restoring muddy walls around the Persian Garden, prepare activities in the Persian Qanat and Garden, for the children of 6-11, participate in meetings about Qanats – their physical character and social role, and Persian Garden - its architectural and natural arrangement, talking with local experts, clean Qanats and sensitize local people to preserve cultural and environmental patrimony and protect the Persian Qanats, which are an outstanding example of a technological ensemble illustrating significant stages in the history of human occupation of arid and semi-arid regions).

- Patrimonito sessions: during these sessions, each volunteer talked about their country (its culture, its architecture, its heritage). It was a great moment to get to know each other and to understand and connect with other cultures and

points of view and to create a genuine discussion about heritage, habits, culture, tradition, history, etc.

- Excursions: we went to the UNESCO headquarters of Yazd (where experts explained to us the structure and the operation of the Qanat systems), we walked on the Zarch Qanat path inside the city of Yazd, we visited Taft (Yazd) in order to better understand the peculiarities of Zoroastrian culture and local customs, we visited the cultural and architectural sites of Mehriz (Yazd) and participated in events of strong cultural significance, as Zurkhaneh demonstration, the traditional Persian sport, an UNESCO intangible heritage.

It was a great opportunity to immerse myself in the Iranian culture, to understand how to communicate in a language that I hadn’t studied before, to help local people understand the importance of preserving world heritage sites, to work in collaboration with other volunteers aiming at the same objective and sharing competencies and interests. Last but not least, thanks to the WHV project, I met wonderful people between volunteers, camp coordinators, and locals, who I will always bear in my heart.

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Volunteer Essay (III) Alireza Soleimani

Hello everyone. It’s Alireza from Yazd. Yes, I was the only local volunteer in WHV 2019 in Pahlevanpour Garden. I’m an architecture student and currently, I’ve been working on my bachelor’s final design project which is a restoration design for a modern cultural heritage site. I have a great interest in cultural and architectural heritage, which might be a result of growing up in a city full of precious historical monuments which is now registered as a world heritage site. Almost one year and a half ago I received a hosting request from a French couch surfer named Killian. He was on a volunteering mission in a village near Yazd and wanted to stay at my place after the event for a week. When I accepted his request I had no idea that would change my life. Well, he introduced me to Sarvsaan Cultural Heritage Group, the organizer of the volunteering camp. One great week flew by and he left Yazd to go back home.

Nine months later while checking my Instagram I saw a post from sarvsaan group. I couldn’t believe it, they were accepting volunteers for a WHV camp in Pahlevanpour garden, AGAIN! You know the fact that they had a camp in 2017 in that garden only 40 minutes far from me and I wasn’t there made me sad. So I did what I had to do, filled the forms, sent my CV and hoped they would accept me. I guess you can imagine how excited I got when I received an Email titled: Welcome aboard!

I was in love with pahlevanpour garden since the first day I saw it many years ago and now I was a part of an international team to conserve the values of the very same garden and the Qanat passing in it. Long Story Short, the first day started and I already knew that I was allowed to be

among some of the most amazing people. Talking of events and programs, I have to say all of them were perfect. On one hand, the restoration of a water mill which included a lot of labour work and tons of Kahgel was my favourite part. On the other hand, the Patrimonio sessions were provided the chance to know about cultural heritage and values from around the world, especially that these sessions led to delicious and beautiful souvenirs.

Also, I want to emphasize the scientific side of the camp. The workshops about Qanats in Yazd.

To end my essay I would like to thank the great leadership team of the camp and dear volunteers who gave me the chance to live the best two weeks of my life and make lifetime friends. I have a suggestion for the readers of this book, don’t waste time and sign up for the next event. I ensure that it will be an experience which you will never forget.

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Volunteer Essay (IV) Farzaneh Ghorbani

Still when I think about the camp, and recall all my experiences there I get full of joy, it cheers me up. I think my year has become so rich because of the Mehriz camp. I have had whatever a human possibly needs to feel enrichment and satisfaction; new experiences through which I learned a lot, communication, excitement… feeling alive.

Simplicity, originality, and breathtaking beauty of Pahlavanpour garden and glorious figure and structure of qanat’s canals and paths took me away from crowded and full of distraction daily life to the depth, closer to myself, closer to things, to sounds, to concepts and ideas which should be prior to anything else and be the most important things in life. It looked as if I had come back to the truth, and the real world after deep and long hypnotism. It filled me with a strong desire for life, adventure, playfulness, curiosity, learning, being open to people and the world, connection and communication with human beings. I had become a child who was drinking the essence of life constantly.

It is obvious that our voluntary masonry work with straw, mud, stone and hatchet didn’t have a serious and critical impact on the operational, professional and long-term process of protection and maintenance of the heritage. The major fruits were strong social life and teamwork, playfulness and first-hand joyful experience with straw, mud, stone, water, sun, the wells, plane trees. A reconnection with our own body parts and our senses was happening, and getting closer and exploring unique features of the garden and qanat was at the core of all things. We were finding a personal style of

connection to those amazing things. We were getting familiar, we were gradually developing understanding about the garden, the qanat through and after outrage of emotion and of course attachment which was forming through our complete mindful engagement with those structures, materials, and environment; and growing fondness for and having an emotional experience with a phenomenon is prior to knowledge and factual or historical information if a sense of responsibility and caring behaviour and attitude toward it is the desired outcome.

Having all sort of information, and knowing about the important technical aspect of a masterpiece and genius craft or structure isn’t enough and necessarily effective for making a person inclined to protect it; it is love and affection, and personal relationship with subjects, objects and other persons that drive people to take care of them. It is the intuitive experience, emotional relationship and attachment, not necessarily rational thinking that urge me to protect my emotional belonging from danger.

My adventure in qanat’s underground canals and wells, and my astonishing encounter with Hasan

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Abad qanat’s “mother well”, has made me attached to all Qanats in the world. The phenomenal beauty of Pahlavanpour’s plane trees, the minimal and sincere architecture of the pavilion and acceptance and inspiring coexistence of Garden body with the pathway and asymmetric and almost random figure of the qanat’s stream bed, have made me attached to all the gardens of my homeland, to all the gardens in the world, which human interaction with their elements and essence are based on sympathy, understanding, respect, and without any obsession to dominate nature, to control all the nature’s lines, every surface, every figure, and every structure. It has made me fond of every little, naïve and humble daily life and home and gardens in the whole world, even if I don’t know them specifically and one by one. Since the Mehriz camp, the gardens and qanats are personal issues to me.

My feeling after the Camp is that whole event and volunteers’ presence there, in Mehriz in the middle of a desert in Iran, from far distances was a tribute to the diversity of lifestyles, to the history of human struggle to survive, to limitless creativity of human being, to the heritage of intellect and wisdom which is the essence of constant and uninterrupted challenge and struggle of humanity to find an efficient way to coexist with nature,... to the endless wonder and beauty of life.

I am deeply grateful for that healthy, safe, sincere and joyful environment, for the inspiring experience which was provided and facilitated by Nassim, Ameneh, and Niusha. It will be always a precious part of my life.

Volunteer Essay (V) Maryam Sajjadi

World heritage volunteer’s 2019 program is one of the unforgettable memories that I have. There are lots of reasons that I’m satisfied with my decision for attending this voluntary program. First of all is the program's site; Mehriz is a beautiful city with its own mysteries and history and the Pahlevan-pour garden is a part of that history, which is registered on UNESCO's list as one of the Persian Gardens and also Hassan Abad Moshir's Qanat (Persian Qanat) that passes through the garden. The other reason that I have is that this program was related to architecture and social behavior and I'm working on these two subjects at university, and experiences that I have gained are very precious to me. The culture, the way that people patiently and generously live in this kind of drylands or deserts, and how they managed to access the underground water, by digging several deep wells and bringing water on the ground (this structure and system is called Qanat) and then distributing it to the whole city and area was very new and interesting for me.

In this camp, our focuses were on Qanats and Persian Garden, all of our projects were related to that and the aim was to know and remind the value and importance of water and Qanats. Our main program was working on a water-mill which was located next to Pahlevan-pour garden. We (other volunteers and I) ,after kneading and mixing straw, soil, and water for hours, made Kahgel with master’s guidance and under his observation. It was a difficult but exciting process. After that, we renovated the water-mill's walls with Kahgel, and in the end, we gained Ossa's (Master's) satisfaction.

Beside the water-mill project, we made a small part of the farm's wall (Chineh) with gravel, soil, and water. This activity was painful but it was thrilling and exciting and I really enjoyed that.

This camp had at least three more achievements for me.

First, we had a chance to clean the Payab (where the water reach the surface) and Qanat's pathway and also encouraged other people to join us by our actions. The children's corporation was very impressive and hopeful. The second achievement was in heritage and children workshop, we wanted to make a stronger relation between children and nature and of course Persian Garden and Qanat, because they carry the heritage to the next generations. For 4 days we worked on this workshop to see the results. They really enjoyed the planned programs such as story station, art and craft station, Kalak (boat) making station, and more, and learned new things. Last but not least achievement, I met nice and kind people from different countries and got to know about their culture and heritage. In our free time, we had fun and beautiful memories such as walking in the garden at night or we gathered in the courtyard and had midnight talks although we were tired. I won't forget any second of those days.

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Memories

Martina Lazzati

This is the evolution and overlapping of artistic drawings from 5 different children, regarding the rectangular and circular drawing areas. In the first step, a young boy connected the rectangle to the circle by realizing a road. In the second step, a girl realized a forest with trees and leaves and over the forest the sun. In the third step, another girl decorated the circle with stones. In the fourth step, a boy created a man in the rectangle overlapping his drawing of the forest with the sun. He tried to create the eyes, but at the end he opted for the nose. In the fifth step, a young child created a shelter in the circle, overlapping the previous decoration.

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Saskia Casert

Giorgia Beneventano

“A lot of hands make the work easy”, is a Flemish expression.

We experienced this wisdom a lot, during the work camp. It’s a pleasue to work together and to share the happiness viewing the result afterwards. Having the opportunity to play just a little role in the conservation of cultural heritage, makes it even more satisfying! Beside that, the work camp is a unique chance to share and exchange culture, point of views, joy, laughter, ...

The moments and memories will be precious and everlasting souvenirs .

I have chosen this photo because, in my opinion, it represents the essence of our work. This is kah-gel, the material that we made all together.

We worked hard and we improved a lot of new skills; but at the same time we had fun and we shared good feelings and experiences!

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©SarvsaanCHG_WHV2019

Reza Teimouri Azad, Boushehr

Eszter Pallagi

The aperture of hope All human beings need hope to continue living.

The hope to start again, the hope to reconstruct, the hope to improve.

I took this photo while working in the watermill as I felt the apecture of hope for the mill to be revived.

During my first stay in Iran I was amazed about the smartness of qanat system and the beauty of persian gardens. Joining this camp I wanted to underestand more about the way of thinking of local people creating and keeping them alive.

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I am very grateful to all the local professionals for teaching us what they know about masonry works, qanat, history and culture.

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Nargiz Aituganova

Maryam Al Balushi

I took this picture in one of the first days of the action camp. It was a beautiful moment: for a while, I forget that it is incredibly hot and I am melting (I am from Russia, so it was really hard for me!). This photo, in my view, shows the important ingredients of any World Heritage volunteering action camps: beautiful place, hospitable local community, incredible heritage, super camp-leaders, interesting participants from all over the world.

But what is more important, you can see a lady in white scarf walking. She is our project coordinator, Nassim, who mixes all the ingredients and makes this event possible. Thank you for the incredible moments and heritage practice in Iran!

The Qanat is a canal that is known in Oman as Falaj in local Arabic language. In Oman, there are three different types of Aflaj; Ghaili (from flud), Aini (from spring) and Dawoodi (The only type of Qanat in Iran). It was a greate pleasure to contribute with international volunteers in mentaining the gallery of the Pahlavanpur Garden in Yazd province. I have spent unforgettable moments with Iranias who has motivated me to plan for future visits to other parts of Iran.

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Omid Zehtab, Isfahan

Farzaneh Ghorbani, Behshahr

In Appreciation of Iranian Architecture and Light

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©SarvsaanCHG_WHV2019

Nassim, Ameneh and Niusha splashing Goodfellas are stepping the Kah-e-Gel water near the qanat on the last day of outside the watermill to prepare it for the the WHV 2019. others inside.

‫ در دل‬.‫ نور را به زیباترین وجه ممکن ارج می‌نهد‬،‫به نظر می‌رسد که معامری ایرانی‬ ‫ دریچه‌ها و روزنه‌هایی نشسته‌اند که نور را می‌ربایند و نور‬،‫سقف‌ها و دیوارها‬ ‫ دریچه‌هایی در دل سقف‌های گنبدی که به‬.‫اصلی‌ترین آذین فضای هر بنا می‌شود‬ ‫ با طلوع هر خورشید بازی نور و سایه آغاز می‌شود و این‬.‫آسامن و نور باز می‌شوند‬ ‫ و این‬،‫ دریچه‌هایی که پر از متاشا و بازی است‬.‫زیبایی متام گوشه‌ها را در می‌نوردد‬ ‫ حفظ این‬.‫ رسریز از امید و زندگی می‌کند‬،‫نظربازی تو را رسشار از لذت و خوشی‬ ‫ ادای دینی‬،‫ حفظ جسم این بناها که دریچه‌های نور را در آغوش گرفته‌اند‬،‫دریچه‌ها‬ . ‫است به این همه ذوق و دقت نظر در جان زندگی‬

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One of the UNESCO volunteers designed a game, named Magic Raft, for local children of Mehriz.

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©SarvsaanCHG_WHV2019

Niusha, one of the WHV 2019 camp The interior walls of the Zoroastrian leaders, going through the Qanat well. house, named Nartiti, in Taft, Yazd are covered of the contributions of tourists from all over the world

©SarvsaanCHG_WHV2019

©SarvsaanCHG_WHV2019

The Expectation Tree Niusha Khatami

Expectation tree was used as a qualitative way of determining volunteers' expectations and see how the camp is responding to them. Here is the procedure of preparing the tree. On the first days each volunteer wrote a number of their expectations concerning the camp on small sticker papers. Rough structure of two trees were drawn on papers and were hung on the wall. The small papers containing volunteers' expectations were placed on the trees later.

At first the expectations were supposed to be put on the roots of the trees. As each volunteer experienced that the camp has succeeded to meet an expectation, they raised that expectation from the root to the branches. These small papers gradually

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formed the leaves of the trees. On the final day we could examine how much the camp was close to the volunteers' expectations.

The sticker papers which have remained on the roots, show that some expectations were not fulfilled. Some of the expectations which made their way to the branches are learning more about Iranian intangible and tangible and cultural heritage, learning more about Yazd, learning about other countries, having fun and learning skills, having cultural exchanges, learning Farsi words, learning conservation techniques for vernacular architecture, working with children, eating Iranian food, improving speaking English, getting to know more about other languages, learning a song from local children or playing a game with them, feel good, etc.

The Evaluation of the Camp WHV2019 Niusha Khatami

The evaluation consists of two main inquiries, one concerning the expectations and preparation and the other concerning how the camp helped the volunteers improve their knowledge in different fields.

1. Expectations and preparations To evaluate how the expectations of volunteers matched up with their experiences of the camp, 15 inquiries were designed. The inquiries can be classified in three groups of general management, activities of the camp and recreational activities.

The volunteers graded these inquiries on a scale of 1 to 5. Management category concerning general management was graded on average 4.38, the next category concerning recreational activities was graded on average 4.31 and the lowest score was on average 4.24 regarding camp objectives.

Management category includes camp leading and time management, preparation of the work camp and information received before the project begins, group dynamics and communications.

Camp objectives category includes authority and local people engagement and work process of different activities. The recreational activities include handicraft, Patrimonito sessions, excursions and free times, accommodation and food, interaction with other camp volunteers and Zoroastrian day.

The following table shows each inquiry and its average grade. The scores have been sorted from the highest to the lowest score.

2. Improvement of Knowledge To evaluate how the expectations of volunteers matched up with their experiences of the camp, 10 inquiries were designed. The inquiries can be classified in three groups of Iran culture and heritage, general camp

abilities and knowledge about the camp site.

The volunteers graded these inquiries on a scale of 1 to 5. Culture and heritage category was graded on average 4.48, the next category concerning knowledge about the camp site was graded on average 4.66 and the lowest score was on average 4.13 regarding general camp abilities.

Culture and heritage category includes knowledge about Iran World Heritage Sites, knowledge about other countries culture and heritage and knowledge about Iranian culture and society. Camp abilities category includes English Language, capacity to work with children, teamwork skill and capacity to live and work in a hard condition. Knowledge about the camp site includes knowledge about Yazd and Mehriz, knowledge about Persian Garden and knowledge about Persian Qanat. The following table shows each inquiry and its average grade. The scores have been sorted from the highest to the lowest score.

Nassim Zand Dizari

Ameneh Karimian

Niusha Khatami

M.Arch.Conservation

M.Arch.Post-Disaster Reconstruction

M.Arch.Architecture

Sarvsaan Co-founder & WHV Project Manager

WHV2019 Camp Leader & Scientific Coordinator

WHV2019 Camp Leader & Coordinator

Nafiseh Miraei

Mohammad Fathi

Omid Zehtab

Laila Maaizate

Koochar Nature School Co-founder

Energy Specialist

Digital project manager

WHV2019 Kids Facilitator

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

WHV2019 French Volunteer

Koochar Nature School Co-founder

WHV2019 Kids Facilitator

Mohammad tabaei

Amin

M.Arch. Conservation

WHV2019 dinator

Scientific

TabaCoor-

Eszter Pallagi

Alireza Soleimani

Giorgia Beneventano

Maryam Sajjadi

Counselor and life-business coach, Ital-

B.Arch.Architecture - Renovation trainee

Linguistic and cultural mediator

M.Arch. Architecture

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

WHV2019 Italian Volunteer

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

Farzaneh Ghorbani

Salman Mohammadi

Maryam Al Balushi

Martina Lazzati

Kids Fachilitator in Nooj Nature School

Web Developer and Digital Marketing

B.S. Interior design

M.Arch.Single-cycle Master degree in

ian language teacher

WHV2019 Volunteer

Hungarian

Specialist

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

Architecture

WHV2019 Omani Volunteer

WHV2019 Italian Volunteer

Anna Martinez I Roig

Saskia Casert

Reza Teimouri Azad

Nargiz Aituganova

Social Work and English Studies

Teacher & Social Worker

M.A. Regional Development Planning

Research Associate

WHV2019 Spanish Volunteer

WHV2019 Begian Volunteer

WHV2019 Iranian Volunteer

WHV2019 Russian Volunteer

Bahar Darbani M.Arch.Architecture

WHV2019 Proofreader

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