After project launching, boxes distribution and organizing introductory workshops

The National Archives starts evaluating the outcome and results of its national campaign “My Archives My Future”

The U.A.E.’s National Archives started evaluating the results of its national campaign “My Archive My Future”. The campaign aims at raising awareness among school students on the importance of documenting personal material and records as tools of the present and memory of the future. The campaign also seeks to ensure bringing forth a promising generation that realizes the importance of preserving personal documents and information as part of the U.A.E.’s present and future.

“My Archive My Future” Campaign aims to establish and foster the value of preserving the confidentiality and privacy of personal documents, acquisitions and belongings of all types: oral, written and audio and protecting them from damage or loss. This helps in bringing forth a generation that interacts with historical information and preserves it for future retrieval and utilization.

The campaign strives to educate youngsters about the importance of documentation and its mechanisms using personal records of school students. It comes in line with the National Archives’ vision, mission and strategic objectives  which promote enriching the UAE's historical record and enhancing the national sense of loyalty and belonging.

The campaign targets the preparatory and secondary school students to preserve the nation’s memory and raise awareness among students about the importance of preserving historical and current records or documents and their archiving methods.

In its national project “My Archive My Future”, the National Archives adopted a number of educational values including educating students on the methods of archiving their important documents to utilize them in the future and directing them to care for their personal documents and safeguard them against damage and loss to refer to them upon need. The values also encourage students to be role models interested in their history, and in preserving their identity, and promote their competition and creativity spirit. Additionally, they promote innovation among society members in connection with preserving student and school archives.

In the course of this campaign, the National Archives distributed thousands of “My Archive My Future” initiative's boxes among the educational zones directors or their representatives.

The distribution of “My Archive My Future” boxes comes after a series of introductory workshops on the campaign organized by the National Archives in educational zones across the UAE. The workshops offered an introduction on the type of documents to be collected by students in the course of this campaign, which will act as part of the memory of the nation in future. A sample of the campaign box was presented, its importance illustrated as being made according to global standards: i.e. lightweight, easy to carry, preserves documents as it is designed to be highly durable, resistant to moisture and external factors, acid free, oxidation-resistant, easy to use and holds various sizes of students historical and personal official documents as well as video tapes, photographs and researches, etc.

The workshops announced the awards prepared by the National Archives to be awarded to interested parties:  awards for Best Personal Archives, Best School Archives, Best Archival Material and Best Ideal Family that encourages its son or daughter to organize an archive of his/her own or for the family. The National Archives set the standards and structure for each award and specified the eligible categories to participate.

The workshops encouraged teachers to assist students to utilize the boxes and to educate them on the importance of private records and documents and their preservation mechanism for future use according to best measures, practices and standards and on the necessity of creating a personal archive.