International agreement promotes conservation of historic heritage in the Americas

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation has signed an international cooperation agreement with the non-profit organization Apoyonline, which promotes communication, exchange and professional development in the area of heritage preservation in the Americas and in Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries, and is headquartered in Maryland, in the United States.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions is valid for a period of five years, and provides the development of partnerships in the areas of education, research, technological development, communication, information, management and policies in the fields of cultural heritage and preventive conservation of cultural, scientific and health collections.

The document was signed by Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC/Fiocruz), the Fiocruz unity specialized in health history. The deputy director of Information and Cultural Heritage of COC/Fiocruz, Marcos José de Araújo Pinheiro, stressed that the agreement is a great opportunity for Fiocruz to integrate one of the important networks in the world in the topics of preventive conservation and risk management.

"This network includes institutions and researchers from Canada and the United States, which are prominent countries in these areas, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Portugal and Spain. We have an interest and the possibility of making Fiocruz the focal point of the network in Latin America," he says.

According to Marcos, the cooperation will serve to qualify the technical staff and develop the conservation area of Fiocruz, as well as to strengthen institutional programs such as Preservo, aimed at preserving, organizing and modernizing the scientific and cultural heritage of the Foundation.

Other efforts will be devoted to strengthening the postgraduate program in the area of heritage preservation and management. "One of the most immediate objectives of Apoyonline is the translation into Spanish and Portuguese of bibliographical references, since most of it is in English," he explains. 

In October this year, Oswaldo Cruz House will send representatives to participate in the 2nd Regional Conference of Apoyonline, in Guatemala.