Social commitment: 2010 accomplishments

     Pride of heritage – this is the goal we have set for ourselves over the years: to empower the local stakeholders with a strong sense of their worth through an appreciation of the history they have inherited, and must protect. Gulfsands support goes a long way in making this possible, through an Exploration Fund that allows the latitude we need to achieve our goals.

The first local stakeholders are our own workmen, to whom we give weekly lectures on the substance of the work done.      And then there are the grammar school children, who come for extended visits to the site, preceded by a introductory talk with slides.

     Focusing on this dimension of our work brought about a new realization in our own staff of the particular significance of what we do as archaeologists. Our resolve to develop a "pride of heritage" as a means to social betterment became all the more explicit. This reinforced our determination, and we began to look at our workmen not only as participants, but also as witnesses. The idea came up of interviewing them. Here is a sample interview with Suwwar, one of our best pickmen [video not currently accessible on website].
     We have also been in forefront of generous hiring practices, for example by providing micro-credit to our workmen, by introducing health insurance (not otherwise in use for occasional workmen), providing small grants for Syrian students, especially women, and by making sure that about 8% of our workforce includes handicapped. From the latter category, here is an interview with Ali Khalaf [click to see video] (he only speaks broken Kurdish, and thus we need a third interpreter...).
     On the job training has been a key factor for our success. This interview with Diadin Mustapha [click to see video]tells the story of our photographer, who started as a young village boy working as a pickman, and has developed now skills that fully match those of the professionals we used to bring to the field. Analogously, we have trained conservators, surveyors, draftsmen, computer specialists, ceramic analysts.