Svitac Project Report – April 2016

Staff:   Gordana Varcakovic, Dina Vosanovic, Milos Popic, Sanjin Vosanovic

Local volunteers:  Adin Midzic, Ismar Mustafic, Aida Zahirovic, Anela Kozarevic, Sladjana Basic, Jelena Todorovic, Teodor Pejicic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteer:  Jonas Kiesner

EVS volunteers:  Anne Bonitz, Johanna Weng, Monica Reeves, Vanessa Brumen

Self-fundraising volunteers:  Theresa Bittmann

About 169 participants regularly attended Svitac’s activities in April, reconfirming their popularity in our small Brcko District community.

 

 

 

ON-GOING ACTIVITIES

  • Culture and Art Diversity around the World – includes Language,  Art&Crafts, Music, Drama, and Sports workshops from Monday to Friday
    • Standard Language workshops – English, and German
      • English language workshops – participants worked on improving their reading skills and on learning the grammar concerning the use of nouns in English, both through classes and recreational activities – e.g. WH questions, games involving writing some nouns on the small pieces of paper, aloud readings (Johanna worked on improving children’s reading skills, using “The very hungry caterpillar” in English).
      • German language workshops – participants worked on sentence structure and word order and practiced what learned by writing full sentences with a subject, verb and an object and some new adjectives and expressions related to the spring season.
    • Conversational Language workshops – English, German, French, Italian
      • I love English – conversational English workshops for teenagers and young people
      • “Lasst uns Deutsch sprechen!/Pricajmo njemacki!“ (“Let’s speak German”) – conversational German workshops for teenagers and young people
      • Let’s speak French – conversational French workshops for teenagers and young people
      • Italian for Beginners – This new workshop started in April thanks to the initiative of an international volunteer (Vanessa). Participants were initially introduced to the Italian alphabet and engaged with practicing some Italian expressions commonly used to get to know each other: e.g. “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?”, “How are you?”, “Where are you from?”, and the like. Participants are now working on expanding their vocabulary and on learning grammar through oral and written exercises. All workshops include a funny final section to practice typical Italian gestures, as we need not to forget that Italian is a highly developed sign language as well!
    • Art&Crafts workshops – the younger and older groups continued to work on the decorations for the Spring Festival – e.g. shadow drawings, small trees made of wool (looking like dream catchers), paper characters, umbrella drawings, butterflies, flowers on sticks, paper and pinecone characters coloured with water colours.
    • Music workshops – samba, guitar, music workshops for children – In preparation for their performance at the Spring Festival, the younger group kept practicing the songs “Djeca su ukras svijeta” and “I like the flowers” while the older group kept practicing the song “let it be”.
    • Drama Klub – Under the supervision of an international volunteer (Anne), the participants of the Drama Klub worked through the final preparations and rehearsals of their play for the Spring Festival: “Karijes”. With all roles allocated, our young actors focused on learning and practising their respective scripts. A full play was practiced before the Festival, followed by other sections focusing on further refining the most important scenes. This preparation work entailed several meetings and practice sections involving all participants as well as a lot of fun! In the last week of April, a dance workshop temporarily replaced the drama workshop (Anne and Theresa worked with the children to teach them some dance moves, including a Greek traditional dance, which was very fun and entertaining for the children).
    • Sports workshops – “Freeletics”, Karate – In addition to the established workshops on freeletics and Karate (and the unmissable football sections!), in April we had a volleyball workshop. An international volunteer (Jonas) set up a volley court with some red tape and a rope as a net. Chairs were also lined up on the sides for the audience. Children formed teams and played volleyball like professionals in a real tournament! (only soft balls were used to ensure children safety).
  • Local language lessons for international volunteers
  • A Cinema Day was organised for our younger group on Thursday 28th April as the following day was a non-working day due to a local holiday in Brčko District.
  • School homework help
  • Promotion in schools – During April, Milos and Sladjana visited primary schools in the Brcko district to promote Svitac regular activities.

 

ANNUAL EVENTS

  • Spring festival 2016 – Svitac’s new initiative, the Spring Festival was launched on the 22nd of April. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Svitac’s international and local volunteers, the event was such a success that we intend to replicate it the next year. More than 100 participants, including several children and young people not (yet) enrolled at Svitac, joined us in our Youth Centre and had a great time socialising and enjoying the programme of activities set up by our volunteers. The event programme was full of amusing performances. Our guitar project members, coordinated by Sanjin Vošanović, delighted our audience by performing duet compositions of Francesca Tarega and Andrew Forrest. Monica Reeves (EVS volunteer from Scotland), and Sladjana Basic (Svitac’s Art Coordinator), with the help of other international and local volunteers, helped the children enrolled in the daily activities (4-to-6 years old) to perform two songs, one of which in English: “Djeca su ukras svijetaand” and “I love the flowers”. Young members enrolled in the afternoon activities kept the audience entertained with other three songs, including “Let It Be” from Beatles and a flute interpretation of the classic song “Dance”. The drama group, coordinated by Anne Bonitz (international volunteer from Germany), contributed to the fun of the event by performing a short play: “Karijes”. Very entertaining in itself, the play also reminded us all that teeth must be regularly cleaned and checked at the dentist! At the end of the programme, our guests were invited to see the exhibition of art works exposed in our creative workshops in the Main Hall and to enjoy the delicious juices, snacks and homemade cakes prepared by our international volunteers. 
  • FutureShort festival – Preparations for the festival continued during April.

 

EVS, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In March, Svitac very much appreciated collaborating with 6 international volunteers: one ‘weltwarts’ volunteer from Germany, four EVS volunteers from the UK, Austria and Germany, and one self-fundraising volunteer from Austria.
  • Two BiH volunteers of the EVS project “EVS Looking to Future (Springbos 2016)” (Goran Antunovic from Brcko and Tamama Cangalovic from Sarajevo) spent a month volunteering in Rijswijk and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (6th April – 6th May).
  • Monica Reeves (UK) and Vanessa Brumen (Austria) obtained their visas in April.
  • All documents necessary for Theresa Bittmann’s (Austria) visa were presented to the Registration Department for Foreigners in Bosnia and Herzegovina in April.
  • Svitac will send two volunteers from the 22nd of July to the 21st of August to Don Bosco, in The Netherlands, to volunteer in the project ‘Celebrating 50 Years of Volunteering (Vakantiebos): Youth Crossing the Borders for social Change and Innovation (Group EVS 2016)’. A project approved by the Dutch NA. Svitac opened a call for volunteers in March for these 2 positions and in April selected one volunteer who will attend the APV meeting with Milos in Don Bosco from the 24th to the 27th of May. The second volunteer will be selected after the APV meeting.
  • In March, Svitac opened a call for a long-term EVS volunteer position in Lithuania for the EVS project “second wave”, coordinated by VšĮ Creativitas (Lithuania). This project involves 3 hosting organizations: Birzu lopselis-darzelis “Drugelis”, Birzu krasto muziejus Sela, Birzu regioninis parkas (Lithuania) and 6 sending organizations: Omladinska organizacija Svitac (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Interregional youth social movement of support of voluntary initiatives SFERA (Russian Federation), ASOCIACION BUILDING BRIDGES (Spain), Emeis kai o Kosmos-Nuestro Mundo (Greece), EDERATION OF YOUTH CLUBS /Yeritasardakan akumbneri dashnutyun (Armenia), Kansainvälinen vapaaehtoistyö ry (Finland). The start of activities has been postponed to August 2017 because Lithuania’s NA has not yet announced the results of the application.
  • Gordana and Dina will attend the conference ‘Challenges in our weltwärts voluntary service’ in Halle/Saale, Germany from the 9th to the 14th of May. The conference is organised by the sending organisations “Eirene”, “Schüler helfen leben”, ”Pax Christi Aachen” and “Friedenskreis Halle”. A main aim of the initiative is to discuss ways to improve weltwärts existing cooperation agreements. Partners will exchange their views on current practices, goals and impacts of the weltwärts voluntary service. All weltwärts partner organisations from South-Eastern Europe are expected to attend this conference.

 

MEETINGS, and PRESENTATIONS

  • Svitac representatives and the youth centre coordinator (Sejo Usanovic) continued to attend our regular monthly meetings with the other NGOs based in the Brcko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for April and discuss the schedule of the activities to be held in the youth centre.
  • “Cooperation between civil society and the media in Brcko District” – in April, Svitac representatives attended a workshop organized by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Journalists Association and financially supported by the Norwegian Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). The workshop focused on a number of questions concerning the relationship between the media and civil society organizations (CSOs): What does prevent the media and CSOs to be recognized as partners and to jointly contribute to positive change in society? Is it possible to change the relationship between the media and CSOs? A main message emerging from the workshop was that the media and CSOs ought to share the same goals and values and join their efforts to promote democratic values and protect the public interest. Regrettably, the degree of cooperation between the media and civil society in BH is still far from what it should be, with these organisations occasionally presenting themselves as competitors in the social and public scene. CSOs’ projects, analyses and research rarely get the space they deserve in the media. Meanwhile, CSOs rarely cooperate with the media, with only few examples of CSOs giving support to media organisations or journalists suffering from political or economic pressures.

 

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