“Restoration projects can also serve as springboards – as trampolines – for broad social and economic development and poverty reduction. In that process, they can help create both the human constituency needed to sustain a project – and the flow of funding needed to maintain it.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture strives to approach such opportunities through a multi-tier, multi-dimensional strategy, drawing on experts not only from fields such as archaeology, conservation, restoration, and engineering, but also from the worlds of finance, tourism, education, sanitation and public health – among others. The cultural components of such projects are numerous, varied, and much less finite than most other development initiatives. The Trust therefore remains engaged with its projects, as will be the case here in Egypt, for long periods…….seven major monuments were restored here in Darb-al-Ahmar, and that three public open spaces were created. We can take pride in the 17 million visitors that have already come to the Azhar Park. We can talk about how one thousand people were employed directly in this work, while another sixteen hundred were assisted in finding other long-term jobs. We can talk of 175 craftsmen who were trained in restoration skills, while another two thousand people finished other forms of technical and vocational training.
The overall impact on the quality of life in this community has been palpable. Disposable family income in Darb al-Ahmar, for example, increased by 27% between 2003 and 2009 – one third faster that in the whole of Old Cairo. Literacy rates climbed by one-fourth. And the impact will continue to ripple out beyond this community. For example, hundreds of young Egyptians have been trained in restoration by some of the world’s best experts; and they have gone on to create autonomous teams which can take on restoration projects anywhere in Egypt.”
Extracts from Remarks by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Inauguration of Amir Aqsunqur Mosque, Cairo
May 2, 2015
Read complete speech at http://www.akdn.org/Content/1332
Ismailimail 