ABOUT US
The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) was started in 2002 by Arcadia, a family charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.3 billion to organisations around the world.
Since 2002 ELDP has been dedicated to its mission to document and preserve endangered languages by funding documenters worldwide to conduct fieldwork and to archive their documentary collections and to make them freely available.
Every year, we provide between 30-40 grants for documentation projects around the globe. ELDP funds globally without any restrictions on documenter nationality or host institution. See our project list or the project map an overview of our funded documentation projects. We run training for our ELDP grantees annually and we train documenters through our in-country schools (customised trainings). Previous trainings took place in Ghana, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Russia, China, Mexico and Indonesia.
Through our training, funding and outreach work we have created a network of specialists around the world who continue to document endangered languages, educate new generations of scholars, conduct research on endangered languages and support us in our work. All pictures on our website are pictures taken during the fieldwork of our ELDP grantees and alumni.