Madeiran Heritage
Start date: Jul 1, 2016,
End date: Aug 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The University of Madeira Students’ Union (AAUMa) develops, since 2012, guided tours in several landmarks of the city of Funchal. These are divided in four types: quick tours, guided visits, autonomous circuits and educational visits.This project, through an extensive ongoing investigation, offers to local people and visitors that come to Funchal, an opportunity to learn real histories of different parts of the city, enhancing the acquaintance of the importance of Funchal’s heritage.Also, through the educational visits, all schools of Madeira have a free opportunity to know these historical buildings and to visit exhibitions inside the Jesuits’ College, thus fulfilling one of AAUMa’s main goals, which is to give equal opportunities to less favoured classes. The project started in the Jesuits’ College of Funchal, in 2012, in 2014 expanded to the Historical Center of Funchal and to the City Hall of Funchal and, in the near future, to the Municipal Theatre.AAUMa is looking for 1 volunteer which will work in these monuments, accompanying the visitors and explaining the histories of the landmarks, streets and buildings, while also studying and broadening the knowledge needed to fulfill their duties.They will also be a part of the other components of the project, namely the social component, through the donations and revenues of these projects, which are used to help several other projects that serve the students of the University of Madeira.The volunteers will also take part in the ongoing investigation, which is essential to the continuous development of the several projects, by working out new stories from the unknown history of Funchal. All the activities will be carried out in cooperation with other workers and volunteers from AAUMa, already engaged in the process.At the end of the project, it is expected of the volunteer to have acquired mush knowledge about the history and culture of Madeira, of being able to organize that knowledge in order to perform guided tours and passing that same knowledge to the visitors, thus providing a very pleasant experience. Furthermore, due to the other activities developed by the volunteer, he/she is expected to develop/improve several other skills, such as linguistic skills, organizational abilities, interaction with people from different backgrounds, nationalities and communication skills.