The project ‘Maltese and French youth for the Restoration of Maltese Heritage’, awarded the total sum of €7,848 by the YiA program, brought together a group of 8 Maltese and 8 French youth, assisted by a leader from each respective country. The aim of the project was for the youth volunteers to work together on our shared interest, that is, the preservation of our cultural heritage through a volunteering initiative.The youth exchange took place in Qrendi, over the course of 9 days, where volunteers both lived and carried out the project, through restoration works on the 15th Century chapel of Tal-Hniena, also located in Qrendi.A core aspect of the project was for the volunteers, together with experts in the field of conservation, to recognize the immediate needs of the chapel and hence as a team, plan out the most efficient, thoughtful and cohesive methods to follow it through and ultimately see their completion within the time available.This challenging aspect of the project not only promoted Youth Empowerment, but through non-formal methods of learning, allowed for skills and knowledge to be shared amongst volunteers. It directly helped build project planning and management skills, team building skills as well a s a sensibility towards individual’s methods of problem solving and creative output.The project also saw to contribute towards the European 2012 Year dedicated to Active Ageing and Inter-Generational solidarity. Various activities implemented in the program, as will be discussed further in the report.***Please, indicate and explain the reasons for eventual changes between your initial application and the activities finally implemented, e.g. composition of partner promoters and/or participants, duration of the Activitiy, Activity programme.Unfortunetly some participants from both Malta and France, who had initiallyapplied with the project had to drop out as they had become unavailable. These members were done substituted with other youth, taking into consideration who had contacted us first from the remaining applications we had received. This was also discussed with National Agency and the action we took then approved of, prior to the commencement of the youth exchange.One of the changes made, was of the duration of the project. Initially planned to finish on the 17th, it was necessary for this date to be changed to the 16th. The reason for this was that many of the French youth travelling to Malta had booked their flight for the 16th due to a misunderstanding that occurred at the beginning of the project back in April 2012, through email correspondence between DLH and Rempart. Another factor that differed to the application was that of having one location to host for all the pax in the Exchange. Such a form of accomodation was not avaiable in Qrendi and therefore we had to find 2 places to accommodate for the whole group. Also, as logging in Qrendi was so restricted, we were unable to obtain 3 quotations as we had in fact only found 2 accomodations available. This also was discussed with the National Agency and approved by them. Despite reducing the activity program by one day, the activities themselves were not actually omitted. Rather than missing out on any of the planned events we found a way by which to amalgamate some. A visit to the Red Tower in Mellieha had been initially planned to share with our French guests a rare opportunity to see some of Malta’s unique and impressive defence towers that are found scattered along the coast. It was also meant to give all volunteers (Maltese and French) a chance to see up close the finished works carried out on this site, that had been restored under the care and guardianship of Din L-Art Helwa. Another such site is that of Torri Mamo in Marsascala, also under the guardianship of Din L-Art Helwa, which we had also planned on visiting on the 5th day of the project, where we were to have a BBQ. Rather than visiting both as had initially been planned, we decided to keep with the visit to Torri Mamo and go there earlier than had been first thought, rather than visiting both the Red Tower and that of Torri Mamo. Our initial aim for visiting the Red Tower were therefore still met through the visit to Torri Mamo alone.Another change was a visit planned to the EUPA office in B’kara. We decided that rather than we visiting the official premises of the National Agency, we would invite the personnel working at EUPA who guided us and helped make the project possible to the press release that took place at the chapel in Qrendi. This gave all of us working on the project, the opportunity to meet the representatives in an informal and comfortable environment, allowing both parties to share their experiences in an open and unconstrained atmosphere. Through these mild adjustments, we believe we were able to carry out the project without compromising our aims and initial intents. Another alteration to the Activity Program was, having to swap the activities planned for the 3rd and 4th day of the project. The reason for this was that we had mistakenly planned a visit to a construction site on a Sunday. The whole scope of the visit to Fort Elmo was in fact for us to have hands-on experience of seeing workers on site as well as having the chance to meet them and discuss the works. As no work was carried out on a Sunday the whole scope of the visit would have been lost and hence, this activity was swapped with the visit to Mdina which could easily be carried out on any day of the week. The venue of the activity was also changed from Fort St Elmo to Fort St Angelo, as the site manager we’d made arrangements with was not available. The ammendment in the activity program was discussed with the National Agency prior to it being effected. Another alteration in the program was that of having an open day directed towards involvement of local youth. We decided to instead keep with the open day directed towards senior citizens and allow youth to join, further contributing to the Intergenerational aims of the project. through this we combined 2 activities without hindering either but rather enriching each through their amalgamation.