In 2007 the first edition of merit based grants – memoria. volunteers for European Culture and Heritage - was successfully carried out. We received 44 applications, from which a Polish German committee of experts chose 12 projects. 9 projects were planned and carried out in Poland, 2 in Ukraine and 1 in the Kaliningrad Oblast.
The workcamps were mainly concerned with clearing, renovating and general tidying up of cemeteries, places of worship of various religious beliefs or local historical buildings and monuments. The clearing or renovation work was accompanied by workshops and lectures on a variety of multi-cultural topics and themes of the given region as well as meetings aimed at presenting the results to local people. On many occasions local people or youths on holiday in the area joined in the work for various periods of time.
As a result of the work carried out more than a dozen objects displaying signs of multicultural Central European heritage were documented, renovated or cleaned.
Also, the organizers of the workcamps participated in two seminars dedicated to the exchange of experiences, presenting the projects and widening of knowledge of the protection and conservation of culture property.
