Johanna Hutzel volunteering in Bosnia

I did my voluntary service at Svitac in the year 2011/2012 when I was 18 years old.

Now, about four years later, I’m still very glad about the experiences I could gain during this time.

What I really like about Svitac is that you get a lot of freedom there. Whatever is your idea about a workshop you’d like to hold, you are supported to do it. I led the arts and crafts workshop for children between 8 to 14 years, supported the English and German language courses and went once a week to a partner organisation of Svitac, a youth centre in a poorer part of the town where there we also many Roma children coming.

For the first six months I was the only volunteer at Svitac so it was a bit quiet, but that gave me the chance to integrate better and to learn the local language – which was ,thanks to Gordana’s language lessons, pretty successful. In the second half of my voluntary service we were up to nine volunteers so we could especially in the summer plan and do bigger projects like the “Fun day” once a week in which we played, did arts and crafts, and made music the whole day on a certain topic. I was very happy about my mentor who gave me a lot of support and helped me with any problem I had.

I also really enjoyed living in Brcko, I think it’s a very good place for doing your voluntary service. It is a small town and therefore you get to know people very easy and get the chance to feel at home quickly. In the summer months there were many concerts outside. In the winter there weren’t many cultural activities to do, but you could always find a nice person to drink coffee with, have nice talks and learn a lot about the history and society in Bosnia.

I’m really glad that I did my voluntary service at Svitac in Brcko and I remember an amazing year full of freedom, creativity and wonderful people.

Johanna Hutzel, Germany

Volunteer at Svitac September 2011 – August 2012