https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Ines Močević, Zorana Nemček, Almira Čehić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Lydia Luise Jung, Lana Fuchs

‘EVS/ESC’ volunteers: Hannah Luise Ursula Külper, Kilin Filiz, Isra Erbaş                

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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 started normally and in the first half of March, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) was able to do day-to-day activities, to mark several international days, and to hold an interactive workshop in high school. After the activities at the youth centre were discontinued due to preventive action and preventing the spread of Coronavirus, we implemented a couple more outdoor activities related to planting purchased seedlings in the town. Since, due to the situation, we are not able to work in person with our participants, it was decided that the activities will continue online. It should be noted that schools have also started teaching online. 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 135 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) activities in March. 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 different geometric shapes, paper animals and greeting cards for their mothers. They learned to write and pronounce letter K and the words that begin with this letter in local languages (Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian), maths and new words in English and German related to numbers, animals, spring and tolerance. They read a story about animals and watched a cartoon based on friendship with animals. In the Music Workshops, they learned the new song “Old McDonald had a farm” in English and B/S/H and continued to do group rhythm and rhythmic/motor exercises. The group danced a zumba for children with the songs “Minions” and “Madagascar” and did rhythmic games. 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 workshop about people who have physical disabilities (people who are blind, not able to speak or deaf) when they learned how these people can communicate and live their daily life.
  • Older group – They made colourful greetings and decorations for 8th March (International Women Day and Brčko District Day). In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to the introduction, food order, verbs, peace and tolerance in English, German and Turkish. Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) organized online support workshops in the second half of March over the new situation, through a closed group on the social network Facebook. The participants sent their motivational messages and photos, which were later published on the site, and discussed the topic of online teaching and how much the new methods make it easier for them to continue their school lessons. The highlight with the older group was a discussion about environmental issues in Germany, Turkey and Bosnia when they compared how the government and the citizens of Germany, Turkey and BiH deal with these issues.

EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In March, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated collaborating with 5 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany and three EVS/ESC volunteer from Germany and Turkey.
• 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 Brcko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for March and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre in the first part of the month before the Corona quarantine.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) staff attended the ‘Open Youth Dialogue’ organized by the Youth Council of the Brcko District of BiH. At this event, general recommendations from the analysis of youth research conducted as a preparatory stage for the development of the Youth Strategy for the Brcko District of BiH 2020-2025 were presented. The recommendations were presented by the Institute for Youth Development “KULT” Sarajevo, which conducted the research. The aim of the activities was to inform the executive and legislative bodies in charge of youth issues in the Brcko District of BiH, and as many young people as possible, about the findings of the research as well as activities to improve the position of young people in the Brcko District of BiH. This was also an opportunity to establish direct communication and cooperation between institutional bodies and youth representatives. The activity was supported by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended an information meeting on the organization of the Peace March planned in June and July. The Peace March 2020 is a one-year Global Justice and Peace March launched in New Delhi on 10.02.2019. on the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth and its participants will walk 14,000km on foot to reach Geneva on 26.08.2020. 50 people from all over the world take an active part in the Peace March, with locals joining each of the 10 cities they will visit. Through 10 peace marching countries, they organize training on nonviolence and other key topics for achieving justice. You can find all the information at https://www.jaijagat2020.org/. On the way to Geneva, peacekeepers plan to pass through Bosnia and Herzegovina from 17.06. to 25.07.2020. Therefore, they will visit some of BiH cities such as Bijeljina, Brcko, Tuzla, Doboj, Zenica, Sarajevo, Konjic, Jablanica, Mostar, Stolac and Medjugorje. Educational training on nonviolence and peacebuilding will be held in some of the cities mentioned above, while the central event of the three-day Peace Conference will be held in Sarajevo.