International visitor: Rita Tjien Fooh (SUR)

On Monday 12 February Mrs Rita Tjien Fooh is one of the keynote speakers at the debate 'Heritage after Irma' in The Hague, organized by the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO and Leiden University. During this semi-public event she will advocate for a regional approach to disaster heritage management, not only responding to natural disasters but also preparing for them.

Mrs Tjien Fooh visits the Netherlands from Monday 12 to Thursday 15 February on the invitation of the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO and DutchCulture. Mrs Tjien Fooh is Director of the National Archives of Suriname, and since very recently a member of the International Advisory Board of the UNESCO Memory of the World programme. In her role as chairperson of CARBICA she has delivered a valuable contribution to inventorying the damage to heritage and archival assets in the Caribbean region after huriccanes Irma and Maria last year.

The National Archives of Suriname is having fruitful partnerships and projects with several Dutch organizations and institutes, such as the return of colonial archives to Suriname in Janaury 2017 with the National Archives of the Netherlands.