https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Almira Čehić, Ines Močević, Aldina Pezerović, Katarina Popović, Ismar Mustafić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Florian Pauleck, Fabia Stroetmann

‘Erasmus+’ volunteers: Halil Kutlu, Halil Bodurer, Dominik Sujka                  

‘Omprakash’ volunteers:      –

‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers: Wouter Pels

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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, Turkish
    • 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 Turkish – conversational Turkish 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 truly beautiful and intense, lots of people came together, have made new friendships and Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) has implemented an amazing tolerance project. Our international volunteers prepared several intercultural presentations on tolerance for high school students including Geography workshop (when the participants created their own country) and Acting workshop (when the participants got into the characters of minority’s to change their perspective). Due to school and university holidays we had former participants of the Samba workshop attending this activity. It was uplifting to see former participants playing and blending in with current participants. 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 148 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) activities in December. 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 ring of friendship, rainbows for learning diversity trough different colours, snowflakes and facial expressions from paper. They learned to write and pronounce letters S, T and U in local languages, maths and new words in English and German related to geometrical shapes, emotions and holidays. They learned “Jingle bells” in English, made a short song about tolerance and then tried to play a rhythm with percussion instruments. The participants also had an opportunity to play electric keyboard and learn simple song “Na kraj sela žuta kuća” in local language. Highlight with the younger group were workshops about comic books when participants created their own little comics.
  • Older group – They made decorations for New Year’s Party. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to family members, tolerance, intolerance, human rights and practiced small talk in English, German, Dutch and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group played some music where percussion instruments were included and learned how to create music using their smartphones. The participants played a lot of volleyball, basketball and team spirit games. The highlight with the older group was a debate when they discussed whether they should stay in Bosnia or leave.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Tolerance and culture diversity through music, art and sport 2018 – The project was funded by the Brcko District Government, and within the project a series of music, creative and sports workshops were held promoting cultural diversity, values of tolerance and mutual respect. In this way, the creative expression, the international engagement and the collaborative work of the participants in building and maintaining the culture of reconciliation were encouraged, providing children and young people with a space for creative and educational learning in order to strengthen respect for the community to which they belong. The project lasted from 26th November to 15th December 2018 and was held in the Brcko District area, at the Youth Centre premises. The project directly involved 60 children, teenagers and young people from the Brčko District area. During the project, a short film was made, and you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/CKAMb5yJ1hQ
• New Year’s Party 2018 – The New Year’s Party was our big finale event and official closing of the “Tolerance and cultural diversity through music, art and sports in 2018” project. The New Year’s Party was held on 15th December at the Youth centre and organized with the support of international and local volunteers, alongside Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff.       Total participants: 120

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In December, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated collaborating with 6 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany, three E+ volunteers from Turkey and Germany and one ‘Love Volunteers’ volunteer from the Netherlands.
• Visa process has been finished for two international volunteers from Germany.
• Sending Erasmus + “Volunteering activity” and ‘Weltwärts’ – Three volunteers from Bosnia are doing their ‘Weltwärts’ and E+ service in Germany and Spain (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 December and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended the second regional meeting of the coalition/network for the fight against hatred, which gathered members of 31 coalitions/networks from BiH in Mostar. The main purpose of this meeting was to report on previous activities and make activities’ plans for the next year.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended presentation of RYCO programme organised in Brčko. This programme intends to support and empower civil society organizations and secondary schools to implement activities in the areas of regional youth cooperation, mobility and exchange; and enabling environment for regional youth cooperation.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended ‘Key to inclusion: European Solidarity Corps’ Partnership building event organised by the National Agency of Slovenia in cooperation with National Agencies from Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Finland, UK, Croatia and Belgium FL from 2nd to 7th December in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The aim of the activity was to encourage and support inclusive projects in the frame of the European Solidarity Corps programme and give an impetus for the creation of the European network of organizations interested in inclusive European Solidarity Corps projects.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended the conference about ESC (European Solidarity Corps) for Western Balkan in Sarajevo. The aim of the conference was to promote a new EU Youth Initiative called “European Solidarity Corps”. The conference was attended by over thirty people from the Ministry of Education in BiH, MCP BiH (Ministry of Civil Affairs BiH), representatives of the umbrella organizations for youth in BiH and other networks of youth organizations in BiH.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended the third training on “Building trust in the community”. Training was held on 14th December in the Brčko District’s City Hall.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended meetings of the Brčko District’s Youth Council which represents the umbrella organization of youth associations in the Brčko District and as such participates in the creation of policies, programs and strategies for youth in cooperation with legislative bodies. The basic goals of the Youth Council are to involve young people in the creation of certain legal procedures, i.e. solutions for young people. Twelve youth organizations from Brčko District are currently members of this Youth Council.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) international volunteers assisted the examination to assess oral language skills in the German language which took place at the Brčko Gymnasium. As part of this, ten students have addressed various issues of society and culture and have given and defended their opinions and motives in German language. Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) international volunteers from Germany – Florian Pauleck, Fabia Stroetmann, and Dominik Sujka – accompanied the candidates during their examination and supported the examination process.