Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) Project Report – September 2019

 

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Merima Hidanović, Ines Močević, Mehmed Hidanović, Leo Burkanović, Nadja Selimi, Almira Čehić, Semir Brodlić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Lydia Luise Jung, Lana Fuchs

‘EVS/ESC’ volunteers: Jan Dizdarević, Anže Čeh Godec

                 

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 language lessons for international volunteers

 

HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

  • This month was a month of new beginnings, new volunteers have arrived bringing new ideas and we look forward to working with them in the coming months. Members of the environmental project held several meetings on future activities and actions in the town. Together with volunteers from Slovenia and Germany, they marked International Peace Day and seized the opportunity to clear the trail on the way to the Ficibajer picnic area and show that “it is not our garbage but it is our town”. 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 136 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) activities in September. 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 the meteorological clock and paper squirrels, penguins, hedgehogs and pumpkins. They learned to write and pronounce letters NJ and O in local languages, maths and new words in English and German related to the colours and weather. In the Music Workshops, they started learning German nursery song “Alle meine antschen”. The group also had the opportunity to play together on various percussions and acoustic instruments. Highlight with the younger group was learning a new song about ecology (‘Going green song’).
    • Older group – They made binoculars from TP rolls and mosaic from coloured papers. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to theatre, democracy and peace and practised small talk 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 a workshop related to International Peace Day when they learned about the importance of peace and a healthy, preserved environment, and emphasized that peace and nature are a bridge between us and the future.

 

EVS/ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In September, Svitac (Firefly Bosnia) very much appreciated collaborating with 4 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany and two EVS/ESC volunteers from Slovenia.
  • Visa process has been started for two volunteers from Germany.
  • Sending EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their EVS/ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ service in Germany and Slovenia 2 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 September and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended the presentation of “Action Plan 2 for Strengthening Cohesion in the Community of Brcko District of BiH in Response to 2019-2021 Prejudiced and Hateful Incidents”. The presentation was organized by the Expert and Administrative Affairs Department of the Government of the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the OSCE Mission to BiH. The aim of the presentation was to inform interested public as well as stakeholders about their future obligations, to promote an action plan to other institutions, to talk about these topics openly through dialogue and to try to solve any problem in the local community through open communication.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly Bosnia’s) representatives attended Intercultural workshops ‘POP UP ARTS BALKAN’ in Greece. The aim of the project was to establish cooperation in benefit of the younger to collaborate with older generations, as well as young people of North Greece in general, with other regions of the Balkan & Mediterranean Zone. The project’s objectives were the promotion of youth autonomy and independence and strengthening youth participation in democratic life.

 

 

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