Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) Project Report – August 2022

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

Local volunteers: Amila Kavazović, Nedim Kalajdžija, Eldar Bešić, Teodora Đuričković, Mira Božić, Nataša Maksimović, Nikolina Marković, Predrag Jovanović, Edna Čorbadžić, Maja Tomić, Dijana Živković, Anastasija Šarić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Nikolai Karl Pfeiffer, Rike Lea Stollenwerk

‘ESC’ volunteers: Emily Jade Posner, Siobhan Rosemary Coleman, William James Caleb Strevens 

‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers: Keshia Lucia Waldmeier

      

ON-GOING PROGRAMME

  • Culture and Art Diversity around the World – Includes Language, Art&Crafts, Music, Drama, and Sports workshops from Monday to Friday (4-14)
    • Standard and Conversational Language workshops – English, German
      • I love English – English workshops for 15-30
      • “Lasstuns Deutsch sprechen!/Pričajmo njemački!“ (Let’s speak German) – German workshops for 15-30
    • Music workshops – samba, guitar for 15-30

    HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

    • This month was busy and very hot. The first part of the month was devoted to preparations for the summer camps, while regular activities took place at the same time. The number of participants increased every day, so most of the activities took place outside. Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) was visited by one of its trustees: Sebastian Chambers. At a work meal, the staff and volunteers got the opportunity to get to know him better and discuss the work at the youth centre. Towards the end of the month, the camps were implemented and, like every year, it was the most beautiful event of the year. Although the month passed in a happy mood, at the end there was also a little sadness because we said goodbye to the long-term volunteers from Germany and the UK who have been with us for the past year. We wish them luck with their plans and a safe return home, and we hope they will visit us soon. 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 175 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in August. Participants were aged between 4 and 30 years old. The youngest and the oldest participants attended Culture and Art Diversity around the World workshops and English/German conversational workshops.
      • Younger group – They talked about summer topics in general, chameleons, frogs, where they live and what they eat, fossils in stones, dragons, food culture around the world, carnival masks and aliens. The group made them from various creative materials, talked about painting, and selected a couple of famous works, which they drew. The group continued to learn the Cyrillic alphabet practising writing the letters Љ, Н, Њ, П (LJ, N, Nj, P) and continued practising reading short words and recognizing letters. This activity especially appeals to children, because they can combine letters into words. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to households, family and animals. In the music and dance workshops, they practised new choreography with the songs “Staying alive”, “Little tomato” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. Sports team activities, warm-up exercises and yoga for children were held every day in the park. All workshops are implemented with an educational visual method with pictures and video; the goal of informal educational workshops is to develop creativity, memory, motor skills, empathy, socialization and tolerance for diversities. Highlight with the younger group was the workshop about fossils when they watched the documentary and painted some awesome fossils on the rocks.
      • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: cultural differences between the UK, Germany and BiH, young people and elections, youth in policy and how to choose the right university. In this way, we want to provide young people with a safe and neutral space, where they can express their opinions and express positive and negative emotions, without fear of condemnation. In the Language Workshops, the group worked on practising everyday communication, reading and translating short texts and phrases, and grammar, and got help with homework and school projects. The highlight with the older group was the workshops for International Youth Day when they discussed what it is like to be a young person today.

ANNUAL EVENTS

  • Summer camps 2022 – Three camps took place from 22nd to 26th August and Children’s Day on 27th August in the Youth Centre. Summer camps included Creative, Language and Music camps. Workshops were held every day from Monday to Friday and each workshop lasted 2 and a half hours.
    o Creative camp – The creative camp implemented the topic “Art in different shapes”, which was divided into five parts: Art in Nature, Art in Books and Comics, Art in Architecture, Art in Fashion and Art in Photography. The participants, of different ethnicities, had a chance to learn and work in a neutral place and make different interesting art items from diverse materials but also to learn more about different cultures and diversity. The final result of the Creative camp activities was the exhibition on the premises of the Youth centre.
    o Language camp – Participants of the language camp had the opportunity to explore many diverse topics in English such as sport, music, film, entertainment and German too. The international volunteers from the UK and Germany were helping and supporting the activities, talking to children and animating them to speak.
    o Music camp – This year music camp has gathered a group of young teenagers and adults. They got introduced to the instruments, learned basic rhythms, worked on the precomposed tune and wrote as a group lyrics for the new song. The song was presented at a Children’s Day event, as well as the video made by one of the participants.
  • Children’s Day – Children’s Day was held on 27th August in the Youth centre. It was a big finale where the participants of all three camps presented the results of the week. The parents and friends enjoyed the exhibition and the program prepared by local and international volunteers. Children were happy to visit different stations (obstacle games, face paint and quiz stations). They also got presents during the Bingo game and enjoyed the sunny weather. It was amazing to see the happiness on children’s faces enjoying this event. It was a special day just for them and their family members and they were proud to present what they have learned during the week.

Total participants summer camps: 70
Total participants Children’s Day: 120

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In August, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 6 Weltwärts, ‘Love Volunteers’ and ESC volunteers from UK, Germany and Switzerland.
  • Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Six volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Spain, Turkey and Slovenia (2-12 months).

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

  • Svitac’s (Firefly in 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 meetings was to discuss conditions and schedules for the continuation of centre activities.
  • Rethinking Youth project – A total of 54 participants from 9 countries participated in the event organized by the Rethinking youth group from Greece. Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) was represented by 6 young participants. All activities took place in Thessaloniki. The participants were getting to know each other through cultural presentations, creative activities, visiting important Greek parks, museums, and Aristotle’s barque illusion which they liked the most. Sports activities were also included in this event at the beach near Thessaloniki as well as debates on non-formal education, sociability, environmental protection, and separatism.
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