https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Zorana Nemček, Dijana Živković

‘EVS/ESC’ volunteers: Angela Claire Stoddard, Malcolm Thomas Lowe                

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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 and Conversational Language workshops – English, German
    • I love English – English workshops for children, teenagers and young people
    • “Lasstuns Deutsch sprechen!/Pričajmo njemački!“ (“Let’s speak German”) – German workshops for children, teenagers and young people
  • Art&Crafts workshops – practical arts and crafts workshops for 15+
  • Music workshops – samba, guitar for children and young people

  HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

  • This month was festive despite epidemiological measures. The school holidays have started and the preparations for the upcoming holidays have helped us to forget the not so bright everyday life. Our new international volunteers settled in the new environment and together with our participants celebrated holidays as happily as possible in these challenging times. International volunteers have been doing a lot of different daily activities and they focused on different things (e.g. supporting online activities, promotion of the organization through social media).
  • About 142 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 paper snails, mice, a Christmas star, Christmas tree decorations and draw sea animals. The group watched video projections of stories, songs, fairy tales and cartoons with messages about friendship: ‘New Year’s Tree’, ‘The Story of Snow White’, ‘Pippi Longstocking’, ‘Ant of a Good Heart and Whisperer – a cat’s story of tolerance and friendship’. They learned Cyrillic letters П, Р, С (P, R, S) and the words that begin with these letters in local languages (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian), maths and new words in English and German related to adjectives/opposites, sea animals, festive food and sweets, winter and winter clothes, tolerance, friendship, love. In the Music Workshops, they learned and rehearsed songs: “Djeca su ukras svijeta“(Children are the decoration of the world) I and II part, “Kišobran za dvoje“(Umbrella for two), and practised various musical rhythms. As part of our regular activities, we paid attention to hygiene, where we emphasized the importance of maintaining hygiene with age-appropriate methods. Highlight with the younger group was the workshop for Human Rights Day when they watched an animated video on this topic, said what their favourite right is and made a colourful message: ‘Happy Human Rights Day!’
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: favourite place in the town, who are the influencers and what impact they have on our lives, comics and pop culture, what is populism and what they want in 2021. The group made a video emphasizing the rights to education, freedom of the media and the right to privacy. In this way, we want to provide young people with a safe and neutral space, a space in which they can express their opinion. In the Language Workshops, the group worked on grammar and more complex sentences using reflexive verbs and descriptive adjectives. Also, they practised daily communication and worked on projects and presentations for the school on the topics: Social networks – Internet advantages and disadvantages, help at home, favourite resort and holidays with the family. The highlight with the older group was the discussion for International Volunteer Day when they had the opportunity to say why they are volunteering and why they will selflessly continue to help in their local and wider community.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• New Year Party 2020 – This event was held on 17th December at the Youth centre and organized with the support of international and local volunteers, alongside Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff. Due to restrictions, a limited number of participants and to comply with all COVID-19 epidemiological measures the event took place during the day in several groups. The participants had an opportunity to participate in various games, fun activities and enjoy the snacks and refreshment. The New Year Party was attended by 60 participants.

EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In December, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated collaboration with 2 EVS/ESC volunteers from UK.
• Sending EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Five volunteers from Bosnia are doing their EVS/ESC service in Slovenia, Greece, Turkey and Poland (2 – 12 months).

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff 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 discuss conditions and schedules for the continuation of centre activities.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended the European Youth Work Convention (EYWC), the central platform for discussing the latest developments in youth work practice and youth policy in Europe. The 3rd EYWC was hosted online by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. JUGEND für Europa, the National Agency for the EU programmes Erasmus+ Youth in Action and European Solidarity Corps, was its partner in organising and developing the content of the event. Its general objectives were to link youth work practice and youth policy, work together to further develop youth work practice, enhance the visibility of youth work and its value, facilitate discussions on specific topics, acquire new insights and transfer knowledge and promote common ground and joint action within the community of practice.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended the online Course “Youthpass <3 Corps – Guiding the Learning Journey” organised by SALTO Training & Cooperation Resource Centre. The course aimed to empower and equip youth workers – and other support persons – with the information and competencies they need to implement the Youthpass process. The target groups of this training course were project organisers and support persons within the European Solidarity Corps programme including mentors, coaches, tutors, youth workers as well as young people carrying out a Solidarity Project.