https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amna Balija, Aida Slomić, Edna Čorbadžić, Fatima Bukvić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Ada Gabriela Groneick, Paula Scholz

‘ESC’ volunteers: Pia Sophie Jonas, Canan Karahan

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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 (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 THE MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

  • This month, we celebrated International Volunteer Day intending to promote, inform, and educate our community about the activities and importance of volunteer work. Our local and international volunteers created various and diverse educational and creative activities for our participants. It is the festive season, school break also started and our participants were very rigorous in practicing songs, dances, and skits for the New Year Event. 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 145 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in December. 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 various topics, mostly related to winter, snow, and holidays; about penguins, foxes, hedgehogs, how snowflakes are formed, and about winter in general. The youngest participants enjoyed the creative part and modelling fun items (e.g. Christmas trees, penguins, snowflakes, reindeer, colourful winter clothes, snow caps and gloves, various Christmas decorations, and greeting cards). The group continued with practicing rhythms, rehearsing songs, and dance choreographies. The participants did short writing exercises, which included the Latin letters R, S, Š, and T. They did warm-up exercises and yoga for children, and every Thursday they danced, did sports and practiced reading and listening to stories (The princess and the frog, Hansel and Gretel, Winter fairy tale). In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to numbers, forest, winter and holidays. All workshops are implemented with an educational visual method with pictures and video; informal educational workshops aim to develop creativity, memory, motor skills, empathy, socialization, and tolerance for diversities. The highlight with the younger group was preparations for the New Year Event; from painting colourful pictures to creating festive decorations, the joy of seeing their little masterpieces come to life was truly magical.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: human rights, diversity, volunteering, climate change (what is the impact?), social games (why do people like to play?), celebrations customs, and emotions. 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, phrases, grammar, school homework, and interesting projects. The highlight with the older group was the workshop for Human Rights Day when they discussed gender equality, social status, journalism, and critical thinking.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• New Year Event 2024 – This event was held on 18th December at the Youth centre and organized with the support of international and local volunteers, alongside Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) staff. The participants had an opportunity to participate in the program, various games, and fun activities and enjoy the snacks and refreshments. 120 participants attended the New Year Party.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In December, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 4 international volunteers from Germany.
• Visa process has been finished for four volunteers from Germany.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Belgium, and Poland (4-12 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.
• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) representatives attended a training for civil society organizations (CSOs) on the topic ‘EU integration process’, which was organized as part of the EU4CivilSociety technical assistance project with the support of the EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The main goal of the training was to improve the competencies of CSOs in the Accession Process (negotiation framework, intergovernmental negotiation conference, screening, criteria for opening, negotiation platform, negotiations and closing of chapters, etc.), Methodology of negotiations between states and the EU, Principles of legal harmonization of regulations and ways of CSO participation in the negotiation process, and strengthens the perspective of CSO cooperation with competent authorities at all levels in connection with reforming the legislation within the negotiation process.
• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) attended an informal meeting and socialized with colleagues from COD, Jajce. On this occasion, they discussed the current programs and projects they are working on, as well as obstacles and opportunities in their work, and learned about the activities that COD will implement in the coming period as the Salto Contact Point for the Erasmus+ program.