https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Maja Keserović, Eldar Bešić

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

‘ESC’ volunteers: Emily Jade Posner, Siobhan Rosemary Coleman, Jara Madleen Schulze, Viktor Hüllmann                

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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 MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

  • This month was a busy month, the holidays were behind us, the number of infected began to fall and our volunteers started the implementation of their new projects. The activities in the youth centre slowly started to return to their usual rhythm while we simultaneously continued with online activities. The weather was nice so we had an opportunity to go outside and enjoy sunny days. 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 140 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in February. 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 made polar bears out of paper and cotton wool, fireflies out of colourful papers, 3D rainbows, colourful prints with fruits and vegetables, symbolically marked the Lunar New Year and made swirling dragons. They learned the Glagolitic alphabet for Mother Language Day, did educational activities for the Day of Digital Learning, learned about healthy and unhealthy food, fire-fighters and fire, trains and underwater tunnels and built a train station with small trains. The group continued to learn the alphabet practising writing the letters O, P, R, S and drawing objects that start with one of these letters. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to numbers, occupations and means of transport. In the Music Workshops, they rehearsed the song „Visibaba mala“ (Little Snowdrop) and “Pet malih pačića” (Five little ducklings). In the Dance workshops, the participants continued to learn a dance called Rock Lobster and rehearsed choreography to the songs „Chocolate“ and „Magic Dance“. 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 for Safer Internet Day when they learnt the correct use of the Internet and what they are allowed / not allowed to do on the Internet.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: peacebuilding work, ecology, the school system in Brcko District, youth labour market, perspective and future of youth in BiH. 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, grammar, and got help with homework and school projects. The highlight with the older group was a workshop “Youth of Brčko” when they could share their views on current topics for young people and the current situation in BiH.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

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

Rethinking Youth project – The project is planned to be realized between eight countries from the EU (Greece, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Spain), including Bosnia and Herzegovina (October 2021-February 2023). The implementation of the project is led by an organization from Greece – ESAI EN ROI Cultural organization of Macedonia.
This project aims to construct a framework of a local Youth Council without the obligation of belonging in a public-sector youth council. Youth councils aim to be independent of politics and self-managed, also to strengthen the core of the majority and emphasize activities of social inclusion. The target group are young people who grow up in varied circumstances with different priorities and perspectives. Thus, the group of 8 from each partner country that will work in the project shall be as much as diverse as possible (socially, culturally, religious, physically and talent-diverse). Topics will be set by youth and for youth, without outside intervention. Local Youth Council framework has been selected for making conclusions on youth, democracy and youth work & raising awareness of the youth sector through information and strengthening of the resources; allocating expert groups on ensuring a rights-based approach to youth policies; strengthening the multi-level governance through promoting the participation of young people on political and other decision; making all the actions visible & interactive in the local and wider community.
Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) is participating in this project with a group of young people from Brcko District, led by the international volunteer Nikolai Pfeiffer from Germany. The group has decided to do a presentation on Human Rights and education. The specific situation in the school system in Brcko District is the national division of students in school subjects such as mother tongue, religion education and history. This, of course, leads to the social division of students in school but also in everyday life. The group of young people would like to share this, as well as their experience. The presentation with other groups and participants will be held online in August or September.
In the first few workshops, the Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) group discussed this project and the topics which are most important to them. They have chosen the topic Youth Complexity and want to represent young people from Brcko in the form of an online presentation. Other topics they want to talk about are the responsibility of young people in the local community, the education system and the impact of education on youth as well as ecology. The first steps are done – the participants have created a mind map, and after that, they will make a poster with more information.
The final part of the project should take place in Greece in the summer of 2022, where the participant from each partner country will be having an opportunity of youth exchange and spending a few days in Greece.

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 meeting with the Head of the Political Team at the British Embassy, Ms Helen Flewker. The meeting was also attended by representatives of NGOs Vermont and Proni. They talked about the current political situation in the Brcko District, the past experiences of their organizations and plans for future activities. Ms Helen Flewker was most interested in youth programs, marginalized groups as well as anti-hate and extreme radicalism.
• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) representatives took part in the MATRIX training with ESC partner Asfar in Sarajevo. The Youth Entrepreneurial Competence Matrix (MATRIX) is a young social entrepreneurship development programme, which aims to develop entrepreneurial competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of future Social Change-Makers through boosting their personal, professional and socio-economic development and also reducing youth unemployment and raising the quality of their lives. Erasmus+ MATRIX is a small European wide partnership involving 6 partners in total, 6 Programme/Partner countries and 2 dialogue events that will take place in London, UK and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Sarajevo MATRIX activity took place from 22nd to 28th February 2022.