Community Based Tourism Training in Old Dongola, Sudan

On 21-23 February 2021, the UNESCO Khartoum office organized the Community-Based Tourism Training for rural communities in the vicinities of the Old Dongola Heritage Site (*). The training-session took place in the Al Ghadar Girls Primary School having 35 inhabitants of local communities as trainees including 31 women. Dr. Jafar Osman Sidahmed from the Sudanese National Commission for Education, Science and Culture, and Ms. Leila Osman Elobeid from the Tourism Sector of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Information led the training.
 
During 3 days trainees discussed
Existing tourism infrastructure for locality / community – world practices;
Communities and possible gains from cultural tourism and industries; what has to be developed locally to benefit from coming tourists;
Local area gaps and resources for improvement; managing improvements.
 
© UNESCO: Community-Based Tourism Training in Old Dongola, Sudan: Participants. 21-23/02/2021
 
The activity were organized in frameworks of the nafeer (**) / joint venture for the area development.
 
(*) Old Dongola – historical place in the Sudanese Nile Valley, former capital of the medieval Nubian Kingdom of Makuria, containing numerous traces of both, Christian and Islamic periods of people’s life in medieval Nubia. Old Dongola is listed as a Sudanese Heritage site in accordance with the UNESCO 1972 Convention.
 
(**) Nafeer – the Sudanese practice of joint works of all community members for common needs, or for helping somebody to make something big (house, etc.) Nafeer is listed as an element of the Sudanese Living Heritage / Intangible Cultural Heritage in accordance with the UNESCO 2003 Convention.