Children are no doubt the future of the hobby so all of us as collectors need to encourage our children and grandchildren to discover the fun and interest of stamp collecting.

Attracting young people to the grounds of PORTUGAL 2010 – World Philatelic Exhibition is a major objective of the Organizing Committee of the exhibition.

In the Exhibition Hall, a special space will be dedicated to the Youth Programs, where several computers will be available with philatelic oriented games and attractive information about stamps from all over the world.

Experts from the Portuguese Philatelic Federation (FPF – Federação Portuguesa de Filatelia) – those with more experience in promoting Philately to the young – will be there everyday, teaching the children how to start their own collections.

There will be numerous activities dedicated to the young participants. For example, qualified teachers will be asked to lead a session based upon several postal stamps.

The Portuguese Post Office has also in mind to invite well-known stamp artists to lead designing workshops for young people. One of these workshops, always a success whenever it has been applied, consists in presenting a graphic story of the stamp, involving the children, about what happens since the Philatelic Department asks for the design of a issue until the first draft is delivered by the artist.

Many invitations will be sent to public and private schools of Portugal to attend these workshops.

The www.worldstampnews.com team will be at the exhibtion and wishes the best of luck to the organisors in their initiative to attract children of all ages. In te past we have attended fairs accross Asia and its amazing to see the amount of families attending philatelic events and how much fun children actually have when visiting the different country stamps.  

Visit www.portugal2010.pt nearer the October date to view a detailed program, with the dates of the different events being held.

published February 28th, 2010