Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) Project Report – July 2022

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

Local volunteers: Amila Kavazović, Nedim Kalajdžija, Eldar Bešić, Teodora Đuričković, Sara Andrić, Nikolina Marković, Edna Čorbadžić

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

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

‘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 very warm, but it did not affect our activities. Most of the activities took place in the park, outside the youth centre, and considering that the school holiday is in progress, the number of participants has doubled. Our participants (16-22) did an online presentation on the Rethinking Youth project, thus closing the topic „The Youth of Brcko“. Six of them will travel to Greece in August where they will meet project participants’ from other partners’ organisations. We’ve said goodbye to Merve but new volunteers Keshia and William joined the team and brought fresh energy and ideas to our daily work. 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 165 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in July. 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 crocodiles, whales, parrots and sheep from cotton wool and cardboard. The participants also worked on the topic “Theatre of Shadows” and created various life forms with the help of a projector and a large screen. The group continued to learn the Cyrillic alphabet practising writing the letters З, И, Ј, К, Л (Z, I, J, K, L) and continued practising reading short words and recognizing letters. This activity especially appeals to children, because they are able to combine letters into words. One of the fun topics this month was “What time is it?” The participants practised saying what time it was, after which the older group took a test, and the younger ones drew and coloured their clock. They also talked about the 4 elements – earth, air, water and fire, and drew on this topic. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to time, seaside, summer and body parts. In the music and dance workshops, they started with new choreography to the song “Staying alive”. 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 the solar system when they made their own planet system and called it the S.V.I.T.A.C. system.
      • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: young people and elections, youth in policy, freedom of choice and cultural diversity. Our Turkish volunteer, Merve, prepared the presentation about Eastern Turkey, Kurdish culture and legends which enriched participants’ knowledge about other religions/cultures. 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 the workshops for International Friendship Day when they discussed how friendship among people and cultures can create conditions of peace and build bridges between communities.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In July, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 7 Weltwärts, ‘Love Volunteers’ and ESC volunteers from UK, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey.
  • Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Five volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Spain 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.
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