Today, on World Heritage Day, the U.S. Department of State invites you to join the Cultural Heritage Center for a virtual exploration of our heritage preservation projects at sites around the world. Launching for the first time on Google Arts & Culture, the State Department is sharing examples from over 1,100 U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) projects in 130+ countries. Visit the Department’s page on the Google Arts & Culture Platform here: https://g.co/heritageatstate.

Through the online platform, visitors can access global cultural heritage sites and learn about the importance of protecting heritage in their own communities as well as communities around the world. They can tour AFCP sites, such as Chankillo in Peru, the earliest known astronomical observatory in the Americas, or Wat Chaiwatthanram, a 17th Century Buddhist temple in Thailand. More heritage sites will be added throughout the year.

The State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center leads U.S. cultural diplomacy by working with international partners to preserve heritage and protect culturally important sites, objects, and practices around the world, in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. Google Arts & Culture puts the treasures, stories, and knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips.

This month, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) will launch, in partnership with USAID, a new International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) initiative, the Summit for Democracy (S4D) IVLP. This initiative will build on the December 2021 Summit for Democracy, a forum for government, civil society, and business leaders to set forth a bold agenda for responding to the challenges facing democracies today.

The Summit for Democracy IVLP initiative will bring mayors and municipal leaders from five continents together to address the three pillars of the Summit: strengthening democracy and defending against authoritarianism; fighting corruption; and promoting respect for human rights. Beginning in April, through both virtual and in-person programming, the mayors and municipal leaders will develop and execute Action Plans for democratic reform in their own governments over this Year of Action leading to the second Summit for Democracy.

The participants will travel to communities across the United States to develop professional relationships with local government officials, technical specialists, organizations, and programs in the U.S. to share ideas, tools, and practices to advance democracy and help them achieve their proposed reforms when they return home. They will also build closer ties with each other to strengthen efforts toward global democratic renewal.

Conservation of the Mausoleum of Najim-ad-Din-al-Kubra, Turkmenistan, supported by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Photo Credit: Tom Till.

On March 28, 2022, the U.S. Department of State’s Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) held a virtual training workshop for law enforcement officials from the United States and the United Kingdom to enhance their knowledge about cultural property from South and Central Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to build capacity to disrupt its trafficking. 

The training brought together more than 100 participants and presenters from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department, the Smithsonian Institution, the UK’s Metropolitan Police Service, other international partners, and representatives from U.S. universities. 

Investigators and customs officers learned how to identify potentially looted, stolen, or forged cultural property from South and Central Asia, including Buddhist art, Nuristani wood carvings, and Mongolian fossils, among other materials.  The workshop also covered the implementation of new emergency import restrictions on Afghan cultural property.

This training was the fourth in a series of virtual anti-trafficking workshops supported by the CATF and organized by the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Conservation Institute and Office of International Relations, HSI, and FBI.  The workshops provide law enforcement with knowledge and capabilities to help identify, investigate, and prosecute some of the most-trafficked categories of cultural property.  Previous workshops addressed specific types of material, including coins, manuscripts, and fakes and forgeries.

This workshop supplements the CATF’s annual training program that, in partnership with HSI and Smithsonian, has now trained over 360 law enforcement personnel since 2009.  Collectively, members of the CATF have successfully repatriated more than 20,000 pieces of cultural property to more than 45 countries since 2004.

Conservation of manuscripts and other objects, Afrasiab Museum of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, supported by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. Photo Credit: Tom Till.

About the Cultural Antiquities Task Force
Created by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to disrupt cultural property trafficking in the United States and abroad.  Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 100 domestic and international cultural property training programs.  CATF is a law enforcement focused working group of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee.  Both are managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

 

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Panel and “Purunmachu: Whispers of the Chachapoyas” team members
Last month, representatives of the U.S. Department of State-led Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) and Global Game Jam, Inc. joined the winners of the 2022 Cultural Heritage Game Jam at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California to encourage game developers to use their platforms to tell stories that promote heritage protection.  The Cultural Heritage Game Jam was the CATF’s first-ever global videogame development contest, and brought together more than 850 participants from 72 countries to create 116 new games that raise awareness about threats to cultural heritage and to celebrate diverse cultural art, artifacts, traditions, and places.

During GDC, Kate Edwards, executive director of Global Game Jam explained the concept, saying, “A game jam is an educational exercise where people who love developing games, or want to learn how to develop games, come together and create a game together around a certain theme, whatever that theme might be.  And at the end of the jam period, whether it’s a weekend or a couple of weeks or a month, they have a game that they’ve developed together, and they can use that as a portfolio piece or show people ‘Look, here’s my skillset.”’

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Panel and “Purunmachu: Whispers of the Chachapoyas” team members
The Peruvian and Swedish game developers behind the grand-prize winning game, “Purunmachu:  Whispers of the Chachapoyas” were invited to share their experiences at GDC.  At a panel entitled, “Leveraging Games in the Fight to Protect Local Cultures,” the “Purunmachu” developers highlighted the power of games as a force for social impact. Vania Castagnino, one of the developers, shared, “universities in Peru have been really excited to see this type of game and what else can be done with the games medium to teach more people about ancient civilizations and cultural heritage preservation.”

The team also emphasized the importance of inclusive, representative storytelling to capture nuance.  For example, one of the panelists shared that while researching the game’s development, he discovered there are different types and styles of purunmachu, the coffins that hold mummified ancestors of the Chachapoya people.  The developers also said that while making the game they gained a new appreciation for the risks to cultural heritage.  One of their presentation slides showed a hole punctured into a purunmachu in order to loot its contents.

Catherine Foster, CATF program director, noted during the panel, “By expanding this circle of awareness, those of us who work to preserve cultural heritage – whether governments, civil society, or individuals – gain new allies in the shared responsibility of helping communities safeguard the artifacts, monuments, and practices of their past.”

Want to learn more about the storytelling power of games to celebrate cultural diversity and raise awareness about the threats to heritage?  Check out these resources:

  • Watch these Instagram story interviews with the “Purunmachu” team and others in the industry @ExchangeOurWorld;
  • Play all 116 games submitted to the Cultural Heritage Game Jam; and
  • Follow the Cultural Heritage Center on Twitter @HeritageAtState for future updates.

Lastly, at future game jams, consider what stories only you can tell!

 

About the Cultural Antiquities Task Force

Created by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to disrupt cultural property trafficking in the United States and abroad.  Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 100 domestic and international cultural property training programs and supported the repatriation of more than 20,000 pieces to more than 45 countries.  CATF is a law enforcement-focused working group of the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee.  Both are managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee  will meet April 26-27, 2022, to review a request for cultural property import restrictions from the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Committee invites public comment on this request.

The State Department follows the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA) when considering cultural property agreements and import restrictions.  Requested categories of material will be considered if they meet the criteria for archaeological and ethnological materials in the CPIA. 

Pakistan’s request
The Government of Pakistan seeks import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material from the Lower Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Historic Pre-Muslim Period, Early Muslim Period, Mughal, Sikh, and Colonial periods through the creation of Pakistan.  Requested archaeological material includes, but is not limited to, stone; ceramics; metal objects including coins; stucco/plaster; glassware; bone, ivory, shell, and horn; manuscripts, paintings, proclamations, deeds, books, and documents; textiles of silk, wool, leather; and wood, dating from the lower Paleolithic (2 million years before present) through the first half of the twentieth century A.D. Requested ethnological material includes, but is not limited to stone; ceramics; metal objects including coins; stucco/plaster; glassware; bone, ivory, shell, and horn; manuscripts, paintings, proclamations, deeds, books, and documents; textiles of silk, wool, leather, and wood objects both architectural and moveable objects; and wooden objects dating from the Pre-Muslim Historic period through the first half of the twentieth century A.D.

Public Comments
The public may provide written comment in advance of the meeting and/or register to speak in the virtual open session scheduled for April 26, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
Public comments on the cultural property agreements should focus on the four determinations in the CPIA.
How to submit written comments:  Use regulations.gov, and follow the prompts to submit written comments. Written comments must be submitted no later than April 19, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT).
How to make oral comments: Make oral comments during the Virtual Open Session on April 26, 2022 (instructions below).  Requests to speak must be submitted no later than April 19, 2022.

Join the Virtual Open Session
The virtual open session of the Committee meeting will be held on April 26, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) using Zoom.
https://statedept.zoomgov.com/j/1607113854?pwd=VU01U1RPWXlZS3BOejdLQzVwOFBJZz09
Webinar ID: 160 711 3854
Passcode: 151415
Or One tap mobile:  US: +16692545252,,1607113854#  or +16468287666,,1607113854#
Or Telephone:  US: +1 669 254 5252  or +1 646 828 7666  or +1 551 285 1373  or +1 669 216 1590

 International numbers available: https://statedept.zoomgov.com/u/amLmiv5or

To Speak: Registered participants can speak and may be asked questions by the Committee. If you wish to register to speak you must submit your name and organizational affiliation in an email request to culprop@state.gov by April 19. After you pre-register you will receive an email response with a unique link and instructions on how to participate.  Due to time constraints, each participant will have no more than five minutes to speak.

To Observe: Anyone may observe the open session through Zoom (instructions above), but they will not be able to speak.  It is not necessary to pre-register to observe. If needed, please request reasonable accommodation by email to culprop@state.gov no later than April 19.   It may not be possible to fulfill requests made after that date.

Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) Lee Satterfield will deliver remarks at the Women in Music: An Acoustic Experience with Colombian Artist Diana Burco event on March 21 in Washington, D.C.  Diana Burco is a featured artist in Center Stage, ECA’s performing arts exchange program, which brings influential artists from abroad to tour, and conduct community engagement activities throughout the United States.

The event is part of a series of programs hosted by Colombian Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón and his wife Pilar Lozano, commemorating the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between Colombia and the United States. Assistant Secretary Satterfield will highlight the importance of cultural exchange to the bilateral relationship, Center Stage’s role in strengthening cultural ties, and the State Department’s commitment to women’s empowerment.

Since Center Stage’s launch in 2012, 29 groups from Algeria, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, and Vietnam have made month-long tours from coast to coast. Artists perform in venues such as colleges and universities, festivals, music clubs, and cultural centers, which allow international musicians to share their talent with American audiences, with the intention of building mutual understanding through culture.

ECA administers Center Stage in partnership with the New England Foundation for the Arts and Lisa Booth Management, Inc. For more information, please contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at  ECA-Press@state.gov.  Follow the event on Twitter @ECA_AS using the hashtag #COLUSA200Years.

Both the interior and exterior of the historic Black House in Lviv, Ukraine, were restored in 2016. (U.S. Embassy Kyiv)
 

The United States stands with Ukraine in its valiant efforts to protect its cultural heritage in the face of Russia’s horrific attacks causing loss of life and damage to property. The destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage is an attack on the identity of the people of Ukraine. Moreover, any intentional attacks on cultural property may violate the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Russia’s recent unconscionable bombing of Ukrainian cities has already damaged the area around Babyn Yar, the site where more than 100,000 Ukrainian Jews and non-Jews were executed during the Second World War by Nazi German forces. In addition, the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum has been destroyed, along with many works by noted Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko, and other invaluable historical buildings and artworks are at risk.

"The United States is committed to helping the people of Ukraine protect and preserve their historically important sites. Ukraine’s cultural heritage is irreplaceable, and its damage or destruction would be a profound loss to the entire world. We are closely monitoring the situation and will call out Russia’s acts of destruction,"  said Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Lee Satterfield.

Ukraine is home to centuries-old, culturally unique historical and architectural landmarks. Since 2001, the Department of State has partnered with Ukrainian heritage organizations on cultural preservation projects totaling more than $1.7 million across the country, including the preservation of Ukrainian ethnographic objects, manuscripts, and historic and academic buildings.

Frescoes were restored inside St. George’s Church in Drohobych, Ukraine, with U.S. support. (U.S. Embassy Kyiv)
 

For More Information: United with Ukraine - United States Department of State

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U.S. Embassy Officer in Lilongwe present seed funding of US$10,000 to Chiza Jika, an AWE alumna and USADF grantee from Malawi during a site visit in September 2021.
The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) today hosted a virtual summit honoring the achievements of African graduates of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program who received USADF catalytic funding to start and scale social enterprises.

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) provides women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch or scale a business.  Launched by the U.S. Department of State in 2019, AWE currently has trained more than 16,000 women in 80 countries worldwide – including 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Lussenhop addressed the African AWE graduates virtually at the event. “You bring tremendous benefits to your communities through a diverse set of businesses from orthopedics in Ethiopia to eco-friendly cosmetics in Senegal and solar energy systems in Nigeria,” he said.  “Your accomplishments show that when engaged citizens – especially women in leadership – collaborate through the private sector, government, and institutions, they bring immense benefits to both individuals and society.”   

When AWE launched in 2019, ECA and USADF established an agreement in which USADF would provide up to US$10 million in seed funding and technical support for select AWE graduates in sub-Saharan Africa between 2020 and 2025. To date, USADF has provided funding totaling nearly US$1.7 million for more than 125 African AWE graduates in 14 countries. 

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Six AWE alumnae in Malawi smile with excitement after receiving seed funding of US$10,000 each, for a total of US$60,000 to Malawian AWE graduates in 2021. 
"While there is an estimated US$42 billion financing gap between men and women entrepreneurs in Africa, women still operate over 40 percent of the continent's small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs)," said USADF Chief Program Officer Elisabeth Feleke.  "At USADF, we believe in the transformative power of women to positively impact their communities and nations.  That is why through AWE, we are providing financing, technical assistance, and convening opportunities for women entrepreneurs to start and scale businesses across the continent so they can create employment and improve livelihoods."

Seed funding is critical for helping women entrepreneurs to expand their businesses, allowing them to purchase raw materials, upgrade equipment, train employees, and make capital improvements necessary for growth. 

Thanks to AWE grantee Awa Ndiaye, finding access to maternal and neonatal care for Senegalese mothers is as easy as downloading an app.  Awa founded Njureel, a telemedicine app and healthcare training company, to reduce Senegal’s maternal mortality rate and sensitize pregnant women on the importance of doctor’s visits during pregnancy.  “The USADF grant has enabled us to offer 1,500 women and young adolescents instant access to medical care, sensitize 300 girls on intimate hygiene and violence in schools, and train 60 community workers on issues related to the management of women’s sexual and reproductive health,” says Ndiaye. 

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2021 grantees in Zambia celebrate their USADF seed funding award in December.
For AWE grantee Magdalena Haule Njaidi, CEO of Mama wa Shamba food processing enterprise in Tanzania, success is defined not only by how many products she sells but also by the number of women she mentors and empowers.  With US$10,000 in catalytic funding from USADF, Magdalena has trained 15 women, five of whom purchase her products on credit at wholesale prices to sell for profit. 

In Malawi, Chiza Jika used her $10,000 grant to buy embroidery equipment and additional sewing machines for her clothing company Chiza Clothing Line, which services professionals in the health care industry. Jika says the machines will help her improve her product branding and increase her output. She is currently recruiting two more technical staff and a tailor.    

Businesses that received 2021 USADF seed funding ranged from health care to agri-business, culinary to fashion enterprises, including: 

The U.S. African Development Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress to invest directly in African grassroots enterprises and social entrepreneurs. USADF’s investments increase incomes, revenues, and jobs by promoting self-reliance and market-based solutions to poverty.   

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Lucy Chuwa (right) personally delivering a free Mama Kit to one expectant mother in rural Tanzania.

[Dar Es Salaam, March 1, 2022] – Responding to the pressing need for maternal care in Tanzania, Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) graduate Lucy Chuwa launched Mama Kits - a business that is saving lives in East Africa.  Chuwa graduated in 2019 from AWE, which is an educational exchange program for women entrepreneurs created by the U.S. Department of State in collaboration with Arizona State University. 

For five years Chuwa lived in Masaailand, a vast tract of savannah in Tanzania’s Rift Valley that is well-known for the pastoral communities that inhabit it.  Maternal death rates here – and across Tanzania – are high due in part to lack of knowledge about maternal care, but also scarcity of healthcare and medical equipment, which means that more than half of women give birth at home.  According to the World Health Organization, maternal mortality in Tanzania accounts for almost one in five deaths in women aged 15-49, with hemorrhages and infections among the main causes. Lucy Chuwa made it her goal to do something about it. 

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One mother smiles with the baby girl that she safely delivered - with the help of her Mama Kit. One mother smiles with the baby girl that she safely delivered - with the help of her Mama Kit.

“When I became a mother and had the joy of holding my babies, I went back to where I came from and looked for an affordable solution to save this society,” says Chuwa. “That’s when we came up with the idea for this product,” which she aptly named Mama Kits, and then she got help distributing the product through the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs.  

Mama Kits are small packs containing basic clinical items critical to preventing infection during childbirth - things like gloves, cotton rolls, a clean sheet, and a sterilized blade.  In Tanzania, these simple things can be hard to find; women have to search multiple pharmacies and pay premium prices to get these necessary supplies.  Mama Kits make it easy - they can be picked up in local pharmacies and medical centers and cost about half the price of buying each item on its own.

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Lucy Chuwa (left) discusses her product with the first medical center to provide Mama Kits. Lucy Chuwa (left) discusses her product with the first medical center to provide Mama Kits.

And it's not just families that want Mama Kits – it’s doctors too. “Our [Mama Kits] team encourages women to start saving when they learn they are pregnant,” Chuwa explains. “Then when they go to clinics, the nurses and medical doctors introduce the kit and also encourage them to save up and buy it.”

Not only do Mama Kits provide women with sanitary medical supplies, but they also equip mothers with critical health information.  Chuwa is currently developing a smartphone app to provide medical info and answer women’s questions about caring for themselves and their babies before, during, and after pregnancy.  Chuwa also hopes to set up an SMS service to send reminders about appointments, medications, and other critical steps to ensuring a safe pregnancy.

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Lucy Chuwa (center) and the Mama Kits team smile with two Mama Kits recipients. Lucy Chuwa (center) and the Mama Kits team smile with two Mama Kits recipients.

Chuwa’s Mama Kits have been helping women and their babies thrive, family by family.  By identifying the maternal health crisis and developing an affordable, accessible product, Chuwa has been able to impact more than 8000 lives, providing kits to more than 4000 women which helped them safely deliver their babies - a feat she attributes in part to her technical training with the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE). 

“It would have been so much harder for me to get where I am now if it wasn’t for AWE,” says Chuwa.  Through AWE, she learned how to develop a business plan and keep detailed financial records, which helped her assess the strengths and weaknesses of her business and make changes to maximize Mama Kits’ impact.  Since Mama Kits is a social enterprise that prioritizes helping the community over making profits, record keeping has been critical to maximizing operations and minimizing costs to enable future growth. 

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Lucy Chuwa (far right) and the Mama Kits team Lucy Chuwa (far right) and the Mama Kits team

In addition, when she graduated from AWE, Chuwa applied for and won a competitive $25,000 grant for catalytic seed funding from the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF), a U.S. government agency that supports African-led development and community enterprises.  This seed funding was a significant capital investment that Chuwa used to distribute her product to more medical centers and provide one remote village with 100 kits for free. 

Chuwa is excited about AWE’s impact on other African businesses as well. “There are many small businesswomen here, but many lack proper knowledge on how to run a business.  It’s not just about capital but also proper knowledge,” she explains. “And AWE is a good platform for people to get this knowledge and make new connections.”

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs is a U.S. government-funded exchange program that gives enterprising women the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Launched in 2019, AWE has empowered more than 16,000 women in 80 countries to grow their businesses, helping local communities thrive.

Article written by: Allie Dalola is an intern supporting the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs. She is currently in her first year at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

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