Who are we?

The Cultural Heritage Organization (CHO) is an independent research and capacity-building non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting, documenting, and reimagining cultural heritage through digital technologies, interdisciplinary research, community engagement, and training.

CHO emerged from earlier academic work led by Dr. Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin at the Digital Cultural Heritage (DCH) Research Center at Sulaimani Polytechnic University (SPU), the first of its kind in the Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq. Through collaborations with local and international scholars in the UK, DCH secured the first large research grant from the Nahrein Network (based at University College London (UCL)) to establish the Cultural Heritage Network (CHN) project. As activities expanded beyond a single academic institution, bringing together researchers, students, communities, and local and international partners, the need for a dedicated organization became clear. In response, the Cultural Heritage Organization (CHO) was formally founded in July 2021 by Dr. Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin, Dr. Niyan Hussein Ibrahim, Dr. Alan Faraydoon Ali, and Dr. Saad Bashir Eskander.

As part of Dr. Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin's invitation as a Co-Director of the Nahrein Network (2020-2024), in October 2021, CHO became a partner of the Nahrein Network along SPU, UCL, Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford, and (later) the British Museum. In a short period of time, CHO developed partnerships and collaborations with various local and international institutions, NGOs, and universities, including Minority Rights Group (MRG) International, University of Reading, University of Southampton, and University of Glasgow. Through these collaborations, CHO has delivered internationally recognized and locally valued projects that combine digital heritage documentation, immersive storytelling, youth training, and community-centered cultural initiatives.

At its core, CHO believes that heritage is not only about safeguarding the past; it is also about empowering communities to shape how their histories and past are remembered, experienced, and shared with present and future generations.

CHO is the first and leading digital heritage preservation organization in the Kurdistan Region and the rest of Iraq. In just 4 years since its founding in 2021, over 30,000 local and international users have engaged with CHO’s digital heritage projects, delivered with the support and partnership of esteemed international universities and institutions such as UCL, the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford, the University of Reading, the University of Southampton, the University of Glasgow, the British Museum, and Minority Rights Group International.