According to 2010 world population estimations, about 15% of the population, approximately 1 billion people, live with a handicap. In all countries, the highest rates of disability have been encountered among vulnerable groups such as women, elderly and economically poors. The obstacles increases the disadvantages that people experience. The majority of people with disabilities are alienated by social attitudes, official policies and physical barriers. The key of strengthening the disabled and giving the opportunity to fulfill responsibilities as citizens at home, in society and at work is to remove these barriers. On the other hand, arrow and bow, which have a history dating back to almost 20 thousand years ago, have been important war tools in much of history. With the development and spread of firearms, the arrow and the bow have been erased from the battlefields in both the East and the West, but archery has maintained its existence as a challenging and entertaining sporting branch, maintained its development from various sections. The development of the archery as a sport has led to the formation of a modern archery with a different bow and arrow arrangement. Only modern archery has become popular in the Olympics and other official sports competitions. Traditional archery has been struggling to survive with the efforts of some local associations and people. However, traditional archery has become a special field of cultural and philosophical teachings, not only a war or sport tool both for European societies and Turks. Thorough the history, traditional archery have been used with teaching tools such as zen technique in Europe and mystic teachings in Turks as a means of imparting a philosophical insight. The fact that only modern archery’s taking place in official competitions has caused the traditional archery to be forgotten and to face the danger of disappearing. As the intangible cultural heritage of the European Cultural Heritage of Year 2018, there is a need to revitalize traditional archery in Europe and to raise awareness of this cultural heritage. The EU-ARCHERITAGE project is prepared with a defined target for the two identified needs above, both within the European 2020 strategy and the 2018 European Cultural Heritage Year. The specific objective of the EU-ARCHERITAGE PROJECTS is "to enable disabled adults to acquire new skills through traditional archery and culture, to improve their physical and social capacities and develop their social cohesion for inclusive growth and to raise traditional archery cultural heritage awareness in the EU" . The target group of the project is disabled adults in Europe. When the project’s specific objective is achieved, it will contribute to the overall objective "Ensuring a harmonious society and inclusive growth in Europe". The project coordinator is the Municipality of Uşak. Uşak Okyay Youth and Sports Club Association, Uşak branch of Turkey Disabled Association are the local partners. Foreign partners of the project are JOGART BT from Hungary, EQUAL Ireland Education Research and Related Services Co. Ltd. from Ireland, Nordic European Mobility from Sweden, ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO STATALE B. LORENZI FUMANE VR from Italy. The project's specific objective will be achieved by two different project outcomes, with a series of actions to be implemented and outputs of them all. The results and the activities to ensure the results to be achieved are planned as follows; RESULT A: Development of traditional archery and culture skills of the disabled Activity A1- Adult education staff’s training in traditional archery, traditional archery culture and traditional archery training Activity A2 – Preparation, implementation and evaluation of surveys among the disabled for motivational trainings and the identification of participants of project trainings Activity A3- providing traditional archery and culture education to disabled adults by Adult education staff Activity A4- Preparation of guidebook for traditional archery education by disabled adults RESULT B-Raising awareness of traditional archery cultural heritage Activity B1 - Establishment of “traditional archery as European Cultural Heritage” promotion handbook Activity B2- Organizing traditional archery competitions for the disabled adults Activity B3 - Flash mob display Activity B4- Preparing Project presentation videos The EU-ARCHERITAGE project has combined the aims of revitalizing and raising awareness of the traditional archery cultural heritage throughout the European Union and increasing the social inclusion and social cohesion of the disabled adults in traditional archery.
The EU-ARCHERITAGE project has been implemented with a defined target for the two identified needs, both within the European 2020 strategy and the 2018 European Cultural Heritage Year. The specific objective of the EU-ARCHERITAGE project is "to enable disabled adults to acquire new skills through traditional archery and culture, to improve their physical and social capacities and develop their social cohesion for inclusive growth and to raise traditional archery cultural heritage awareness in the EU" . The target group of the project is disabled adults in Europe. When the project’s specific objective has been achieved, it has been contributed to the overall objective of "Ensuring a harmonious society and inclusive growth in Europe". During the implementation of the EU-ARCHERITAGE project, some local and international project activities have been affected by the constraints of the Covid 19 crisis in partner countries and internationally. Some activities were postponed and some project activities were not able to carried out due to the Covid 19 rules of the countries. Project activities which were planned to carry out in social environments with disabled people were not able to implement due to restrictions. However, the project team rearranged its work in such a way that the lack of activities that were not able to carry out will not affect the results of the project. Project team has ensured that the project outputs and results have been created as planned in the application phase. The specific objective of the project has been achieved through two different project results. The project activities planned to achieve the project results has been carried out. The results and activities that ensure to the achievement of the project objective has been carried out as follows. RESULT A: Development of traditional archery and culture skills of the disabled Activity A1- Trainers' training has been provided to adult education personnel on traditional archery, culture of traditional archery and traditional archery training. The EU-ARCHERITAGE project trainers' training program has been implemented with participants from each partner country in Budapest, Hungary, and with a total of 35 participants. Activity A2- The training program and daily training plan used on the traditional archery trainers' training for the disabled have been created. Activity A3- The guidebook has been prepared on traditional archery training for adults with disabilities. In this guidebook, the methods to be followed when providing traditional archery training to people with disabilities, the equipment and the stages of the training are explained step by step. RESULT B- Raising awareness of traditional archery cultural heritage Activity B1- “European Cultural Heritage Traditional Archery” promotional handbook has been created. In the handbook, traditional archery history and current traditional archery sport activities of all partner countries are introduced. Activity B2- Traditional archery sport promotion activities were carried out for disabled adults. Activity B3- The project presentation video has been created. The project promotional video has been created with the visual materials obtained from the activities implemented from the beginning of the project. The EU-ARCHERITAGE project ensured of revitalizing and raising awareness of the traditional archery cultural heritage in the European Union and increasing the social inclusion and social cohesion of the disabled adults through traditional archery training.