https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Ines Močević, Almira Čehić, Boris Kikić, Predrag Jovanović, Dijana Živković, Ahmed Avdić, Jovana Lukić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Lydia Luise Jung, Lana Fuchs

‘EVS/ESC’ volunteers: Hannah Luise Ursula Külper                

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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
    • 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 languages lessons (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian) for international volunteers

HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

• This month tolerance weeks enabled everybody to think more about the topics of peace, human rights and acceptance. We held a “tea party” with local and international volunteers, where we discussed the importance of volunteering and shared personal experiences. Our international volunteers had the chance to talk in the local languages (Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian) with people that are around their age and found that challenging in a positive way. International volunteers have also been doing a lot of different daily activities and they focused on different things (e.g. promotion of the organization through social media).
• About 145 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 sunflowers, snowflakes, candles and bracelets of friendship. They learned to write and pronounce letters Đ and E in local languages (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian), maths and new words in English and German related to winter, friendship and tolerance. The group read „Ugly duckling“ (fairy-tale about accepting diversity), „Emperor’s new clothes“ (we have the right to speak), „Story about hedgehog“ and „The Adventures of an Apprentice Hlapic“. In the Music Workshops, they rehearsed songs in local languages (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian) „Kroz oblake sanke lete“ (“Trough clouds Santa’s sledge flies”), „I’ve got peace in my heart“ and „Alle meine Entchen“ (“All my little ducklings”). The group also had the opportunity to play together on various percussions and acoustic instruments. Highlight with the younger group was a workshop about human rights when they learned that all children, of all races and religions, can live and play together.
  • Older group – They made a rainbow with the message „We have equal rights“, fictional animals for the online zoo, New Year’s greeting cards and firework with toilet paper. In the Language Workshops, the group learned the past tense, describing items and about human rights, friendship, peace and tolerance in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops, the group played together at various acoustic instruments. The participants played a lot of volleyball, basketball and team spirit games. The highlight with the older group was an interactive workshop when they discussed how human rights have evolved so far and what challenges they have faced.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Tolerance and culture diversity through music, art and sport 2019 – 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 are 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 25th November to 14th December 2019 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 Brcko District area.
• New Year’s Party 2019  – 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 2019” project. The New Year’s Party was held on 13th 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

EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In December, 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 EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ service in Germany and Slovenia (9 and 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) representatives attended training ”Stand Together In Solidarity” which was held in Italy from 4th to 10th December. The project brought together 36 youth workers/leaders from Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Latvia, Italy, Ireland and The Netherlands in order to set up new partnerships, to reflect on program’s exclusion of youth from rural areas, to foster their inclusion focusing on positive examples from different countries and to explore the concept of European citizenship and ESC (European Solidarity Corps) as a practise at local and European level for young people from all the backgrounds.