https://svitac.org

Staff: Gordana Varcaković, Dina Vošanović, Miloš Popić, Sanjin Vošanović

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Ines Močević, Aldina Pezerović, Almira Čehić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Florian Pauleck, Fabia Stroetmann

‘EVS/ESC’ volunteers: Dominik Sujka                  

april19projectreport (10)

april19projectreport (9)

april19projectreport (8)

april19projectreport (7)

april19projectreport (6)

april19projectreport (5)

april19projectreport (4)

april19projectreport (3)

april19projectreport (2)

april19projectreport (1)

ON-GOING PROGRAMME

• 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 – standard English language workshops for teenagers and young people
    • German – standard German language workshops for teenagers and young people
  • Conversational Language workshops – English, German
    • I love English – conversational English workshops for teenagers and young people
    • “Lasst uns Deutsch sprechen!“ (“Let’s speak German”) – conversational German workshops for teenagers and young people
  • Art&Crafts workshops – practical arts and crafts workshops for children and teenagers
  • Music workshops – samba, guitar, music workshops for children and young people
  • Sports workshops – for teenagers and young people
  • Drama workshops – for teenagers and young people
• Local language lessons for international volunteers

HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

• This month was preoccupied with the preparations for the spring festival, Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) birthday party and the preparations of our weltwearts’ volunteers to support the German language competition of the high school students in Brčko District Gymnasium. It was a very interesting and enriching experience for volunteers to see oral exams from the perspective of teachers and to testify how young people in Bosnia learn the language they grew up with. Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) is thanking the teachers for this unique opportunity and wish all the students a successful experience learning German. International volunteers have also been doing a lot of different daily activities and they focused on different things (fundraising, promotion of the organization through social media etc.).
• About 137 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) activities in April. Participants were aged between 4 and 40 years old. The youngest and the oldest participants attended Culture and Art Diversity around the World workshops and English/German workshops for adults.
  • Younger group – They made a nest with birds, drawn and coloured the kingdom of peace, worked on various worksheets with drawings of wild animals, and practiced by merging dots, creating an image. They learned to write and pronounce letters F and G in local languages, maths and new words in English and German related to shapes, colours, numbers, family and tolerance. In the Music Workshops they repeated the songs “When You Are Happy”, “Do-Re-Mi” and “Baby Shark” performed at the Spring Festival. The group also had the opportunity to play together on various percussions and acoustic instruments. Highlight with the younger group were workshops when they learned about different monetary values and savings.
  • Older group – They made decorations for Spring festival, birthday cards for Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) 20th birthday and designs of the Solar System planet. In the Language Workshops the group learned new words related to emotions, friendship, tolerance and practiced small talk in English, German and Spanish. In the Music Workshops the group learned to write notes and to practice chords on the piano. The participants played a lot of volleyball, basketball and team spirit games. The highlight with the older group was a workshop related to World Health Day when they had the opportunity to be informed about the importance of providing First Aid and Reanimation.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Spring festival 2019 – The festival and Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) birthday party were organised on 12th April; this year Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) has turned 20! An interesting program was prepared for the families and friends of the participants, but also for children and young people from Brčko District. Our friends from the “Center for German language – Glossa and Brčko District Scout Association also took part in our program. The audience had the opportunity to hear performances on guitars, flutes, and to see the dancing group, vocal performances, and to watch three short videos about the work of Svitac (Firefly Bosnia). After the program our guests had a chance to socialize enjoying a refreshment and a birthday cake. Total participants: 120

EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In April, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated collaborating with 3 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany and one EVS/ESC volunteer from Germany.
• Sending EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Two volunteers from Bosnia are doing their ‘Weltwärts’ service in Germany (12 months).

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives continued to attend regular monthly meetings with the youth centre coordinator and the other NGOs based in Brčko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for April and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended training course “Tools for Social Development – Volume III” organized by Association „People to people Serbia“ in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia. The main objectives were to discuss importance of cross-sector cooperation, to introduce youth workers with legal mechanisms of human rights protections, to build youth workers’ skills and knowledge on how to advocate young people with disabilities’ human rights and to create the unique online platform in Europe which will gather all youth workers working/or interested in working with YPWDs. The training gathered 25 participants from 10 countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Spain).
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended the training on “Establishing SWOT analysis and strategic plan of the Youth Council of the Brčko District of BiH” within the project “Together we are stronger”. The aim of the training was to contribute to the capacity building of institutions dealing with youth issues in BiH. The training was organized by PRONI Centre for Youth Development and supported by IBON International.
• Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) as a member of the network “Promote Positive” has signed the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between Network Members. The Network “Promoting Positive”, in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, marked six years of work and today’s Memorandum confirmed the promotion among members and promotion of tolerance and strength of social cohesion in Brčko District BiH.