https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Ines Močević, Zorana Nemček, Nusreta Ferizagić, Almira Čehić, Borjana Stjepanović

‘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 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 children and teenagers
  • Music workshops – samba, guitar for children and young people

  HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

  • This month we were allowed to start again with the activities in the youth centre, of course with following the recommended measures. Online activities continued while a small group of participants worked outdoors in the youth centre every day. The schedule was made so everybody could participate in outdoor activities during the week. ECO team started plans for a civil petition to point to one part of the town, which is located in the centre and is littered with garbage. The main aim is to invite the government to take responsibility for a more beautiful and cleaner town. 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 138 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) online activities in June. 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 drew various animals with their hands and fingers (snakes, giraffes, dinosaurs, cats and dogs), read stories, fables and poems about friendship, beautiful things that surround us, respect for parents and love among people. They continued to learn Latin letters S, Š, T, U and the words that begin with these letters in local languages (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian), maths and new words in English and German related to school supplies, body parts, toys, summer and tolerance. In the Music Workshops, they repeated the song “Bear and Honey” and the song about bees. This month they also learned on traffic safety and how to cross the street. As part of our regular activities, this month we again paid attention to hygiene, where we emphasized the importance of maintaining hygiene with age-appropriate methods, and reiterated how often and how properly to wash hands and teeth. Highlight with the younger group was the online workshop for World Day against Child Labour when they draw one of their rights and they have chosen their safe home and family.
    • Older group –  They conducted discussions on the topics of elections in BiH, youth unemployment, the direct impact of youth on the policy, the current migrant situation in BiH, but also the problem of refugees around the world. Four young Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) members wrote letters and expressed their thoughts and feelings about World Refugee Day. The highlight with the older group was an outdoor workshop when they talked about ecology and ways to contribute to environmental protection.

  EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In June, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated online collaboration with 3 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany and one EVS/ESC volunteer from Germany.
  • Sending EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – One volunteer from Bosnia is doing his EVS/ESC and service in Slovenia (9 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 participated in the SALTO SEE online meeting with accredited organizations in the Western Balkans. The meeting was intended for the organisations, who are actively involved in regular work with hosted or sent volunteers within the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme. The main goal of the meeting was offering a space to express the issues organisations are facing right now and the dilemmas they have about the foggy/uncertain future, to exchange with others and hear how they are managing the challenges, to get answers to currently burning questions and some inspirations how to adapt to these circumstances.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives participated in 3rd Europe-Western Balkans Youth Meeting: ‘Using the EU youth programmes as vehicles for a positive societal change ONLINE’. The aim of the meeting was to offer some inspiring information accompanied by smaller spaces for joint exploration and reflection, including an interactive panel discussion, Q& A sessions and participatory workshops and to initiate reflection and dialogue among youth workers and other stakeholders in the youth field from the WB region and other European countries about the role of European and cross-border cooperation (in particular the European youth programmes Erasmus+: Youth in Action and the European Solidarity Corps) in supporting societal change, further development of youth work and youth policy and European integration. Over 30 participants participated and the meeting was organised by SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre in cooperation with the National Agencies for Erasmus+: Youth in Action and the European Solidarity Corps of Croatia, Germany, North Macedonia and Slovenia.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended Bond webinar “5 priorities to build a resilient organisation post-coronavirus”. The participants were able to listen to presentations about protecting staff, informing strategy, managing partners, donor engagement and how to organise to the new ‘normal’.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended Bond webinar “Future of Civil Society Organisations”. Challenges from COVID-19 brought new opportunities for the future of civil society organisations. In a series of articles ICVA’s ED, Ignacio Packer, along with other leaders of civil society networks & platforms shared their thoughts and identify possible new directions that civil society organisations may want to go.