The Syrian Ministry of Tourism, on Monday, launched training workshops on handicrafts threatened with extinction within the project of the national program for the sustainable development of traditional crafts in collaboration with the Syrian National Commission of UNESCO. The training workshops will continue until 27 May and will be distributed to several shops of the handicrafts market in Tekiya Sulaymaniyah and Khan al-Zogag in Bab-Sharqi area, in addition to a shop in Qazzazin area of Damascus.

The project manager, Eng. Marhaf Abu Harb pointed to the importance of creating awareness among the new generation about Syrian handicrafts in order to preserve them, in addition to the need to train this generation by skilled trainers as well as developing and innovating new methods of attracting handicraft products and focus on encouraging and training young women in rural areas.

Abu Harb traditional industries are one of the important sources of support for the national economy, indicating that the development of these countries focuses on the interest of this important sector to benefit from diversifying the sources of tourism products and in promoting the heritage to the world, especially if these countries have a rich heritage.

He pointed out that the products of traditional industries are a main destination for Arab and foreign tourists to buy and acquire, because of the excellence of the Syrian craftsman with various characteristics contributed to the richness and diversity of the Syrian heritage, and the availability and diversity of sources of natural raw materials and creative ability to benefit from this diversity.

The Syrian craftman Ghassan Wardah, said that the manufacture of Syrian hand carpets is a very old profession inherited by parents from grandparents and must be preserved, encouraging young people to learn it, especially after the introduction of modern machines, adding that the training workshops are a revival of this profession.

The training program is accompanied by an exhibition in Talkiyah Sulaymaniyah to display the trainees' occupations during the days of the training workshops. The national program for sustainable development of traditional crafts is a national heritage project that aims at fostering traditional and heritage crafts, raising the efficiency of workers in this sector and safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, which depend on realism in the good and sustainable use of tourism resources.