Youth-Led Vibrancy: Young Living Craft Activists (YLCA)

Image credits: Images provided by Aydan and Zarja.

Powered entirely by a passionate volunteer team, YLCA operates as a vibrant social media platform honouring cultural heritage globally. Via captivating posts, reels, and challenges, they link thousands of followers to ICH narratives, showing how traditions evolve and flourish in contemporary settings.

Here are two notable examples of their efforts:

1. Meet Aydan: Holding Onto Culture Through Food (Posted 10th of June, 2025): In this motivating entry, Turkish Cypriot advocate Aydan recounts her diaspora experience, employing classic recipes such as sulu muhallebi to maintain memory and identity. The reel displays lively visuals of carob-season prep, earning 378 likes and 40 comments, igniting talks on food as a cultural link. It exemplifies how individual tales enhance worldwide heritage. Read more here: https://www.instagram.com/young.living.craft.activists/p/DKwFfKmsrRH/

   
   

2. From Stone to Story: Meet Zarja (Posted 2nd of July, 2025): This inspiring post features Zarja, a 14-year-old student from Divača, Slovenia, who is actively preserving the ancient craft of dry stone walling in the Karst region. Through campaigns, marathons like KAMENTON, and performances such as "Nono's Wall," she and the Partnership for the Preservation and Popularisation of Karst Dry Stone Walling engage youth on both sides of the Slovenia-Italy border. The carousel includes Zarja's personal story, photos of children building walls, and emphasises keeping this Bronze Age technique alive to prevent it from fading into oblivion. It has garnered likes from activists and sparked discussions on transboundary heritage conservation. See more here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLmKNvUsGeE/

YLCA's volunteer squad has boosted audience interaction significantly, demonstrating that enthusiasm and online expertise can rejuvenate crafts for emerging generations.

Follow @young.living.craft.activists for additional inspiration!