Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) Project Report – February 2024

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amina Omerović, Teodora Krsmanović, Berina Čačković

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Jonathan Ludwig, Simon Müller

‘ESC’ volunteers: – 

      

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, our friend and active member, Irfan made us happy with a cake to celebrate his 19th birthday. We were honoured to be his chosen people! We are very happy to see the smiling faces of our participants and watch their friendship grow day by day! Our volunteers came up with some very innovative activities: talking about theatre and performing mini-shows with puppets! We were impressed with our participants’ chess skills while Simon gave a presentation about Waldorf and Montessori schools and talked to the participants about alternative education. 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 141 participant 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 talked about the jungle, the savannah (the animals that live there and what they eat), the human body, spring (what changes happen in nature), the stone and metal ages. The youngest participants enjoyed the creative part and modelling fun items (e.g. turtles, birds on a branch, paper flowers). The group continued with music workshops, practicing rhythms, rehearsing songs, and a new dance choreography. The participants continued to learn the Latin alphabet practising writing the letters K, L, Lj, M, N, and NJ. They did warm-up exercises and yoga for children, and every Thursday they danced, did sports, and practiced reading and listening to stories (The Jungle Book, Dorothy and the Magic Shoes, The Pride of the Crow, and The White Deer). In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to body, in town, means of transport, occupation, fruit, and vegetables. 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 the workshop for International Mother Language Day when they used people and occupations to create positive associations between an occupation and language.
      • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: social justice, nihilism, volunteering, and digitization. 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 World Day of Social Justice when they discussed trolling on social media/internet (intentionally presenting incorrect information, insulting, disrupting communication) based on race nationality, or economic status.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In February, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 2 Weltwärts volunteers from Germany.
  • Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Five volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Turkey, Romania and France (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.
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Activities, news, Project Report