Background First Situation: Our cultural heritage and historical assets are rapidly disappearing due to the wars in different parts of the world, fires deliberately issued, opening natural and historic sites to construction for commercial reasons, taking some historic works out of the country with ambition to earn money, insufficient protection of these works and damage by the human being. Second Situation: Education and awareness of young people on cultural heritage is very weak. The main reasons of this are the insufficient education in the families and schools, cultural assets being out of young people social life and not being the focus of them, not having enough broadcasting policy on the concept of cultural heritage in the media and insufficient awareness raising activities of the relevant decision-makers and civil society organizations Project Objectives -increase sensitivity and experience of the participants on cultural heritage by the help of awareness and consciousness increase trainings -organizing trips to the historic sites and let them learn the historical heriatage by seeing and touching The Number and Profile of the Participants Participants will be chosen among the high school students, university students, university graduates, unemployed or newly employed young people. 14 participants from Turkey and 14 from Estonia (Total 28) between 18-25 ages will participate in the project. Description of the Activities: - Reviewing the project activities, forming activity groups, determining the roles of participants, determining trip routes. - Trainings on the concept of cultural heritage, the importance of cultural heritage, world cultural heritage, our cultural heritage in Istanbul. - Trainings on Photography, camera handling and interview techniques. - Visits to the cultural heritage in the different districts of Istanbul by activity groups,interviews, taking photos and video recording. - Opening ‘History Reflected by The Lens’ photo exhibition. - Making a documentary film by joining interviews with simple methods and adding background music and comments. Methodology to be followed Various entertainment and sports events will be performed to meet the participants, create a warm friendship and provide integration to the groups. After starting the project, trainings on photography, recording techniques, interviewing, cultural heritage, importance of cultural heritage, world cultural heritage, and cultural heritage in Istanbul will be carried out. That the project requires a wide range of field work, makes it necessary to perform the search in groups. Therefore, participants will be divided into 5 groups including 6 people in each and they will do their work in a different rout. So the groups will visits to important historical mosques, squares, markets, fountains and cisterns, castles, towers, palaces, museums, synagogues, churches and monasteries by defining the routes of each group. During these visits, participants will take photos, record videos, and interview with the responsible of the place about the process it has had so far. Then a photo exhibition will be held in a room which will be allocated by Maltepe Municipality. After the project activities, the exhibition will be held in 5 different school to raise the awareness of the students. The captured videos will be turned into a documentary as an amateur work and shown during the photo exhibitions. Results and Impact Participants improved their communication skills in their mother tongue and foreign languages; developed photography, recording and interviewing competences. Participants comprehended the basic concepts related with the cultural heritage and cultural assets, they increased their awareness. Participants developed their practical competence by the help of field works. Participants developed their social, cultural and academic competences. Long Term Benefits - The project contributed to the introducing and protection of cultural assets in Istanbul. - Awareness of the local institutions and local people increased. - The recognition of UNESCO, related Turkish public institutions and NGO’s was increased. - 2863 No Culture and Nature Assets Protection Law became well known and its effectiveness was increased. - The project contributed to the works and objectives of UNESCO, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).