https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amna Balija, Aida Slomić, Teodora Đuričković, Edna Čorbadžić, Ajla Hodžić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Charlotte Stella Kramer, Lenja Helen Schulze Wessel

‘ESC’ volunteers: Marlen Eckert, Matilda Grace Dixon, Abdülvekil GÖK, Abdurrazzak Çinar 

ProjectreportJuly2023 (10)

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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 our participants discovered a lot of interesting facts, experimented with natural materials, talked about cultural contrasts between UK, Germany and Turkey, and practiced new rhythms at music workshops. Everybody had a great time at the solar system workshop! With the help of our international volunteers, participants made a very cool poster with little spaceships and planets! The other days were full of music, park sports, yoga, and a very important topic: traffic rules and safe behaviour in traffic. 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 150 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 talked about flamingos, peacocks, butterflies, cacti, fish and the sea; made them thematically from paper, cardboard, and decorative material. The youngest participants enjoyed the creative part and modelling spaceships, small cacti, flamingos, and peacocks. The group continued with music workshops, practicing rhythms and repeating songs learned in previous months. Participants continued to learn and write numbers; this month, they learned to write numbers from 9-13. They did warm-up exercises and yoga for children, and every Thursday they danced, did sports and practiced reading and listening to stories. In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to hygiene, animals, 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 learning a new dance choreography for a song called „Happy“ by Pharrell Williams.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: discrimination, migration, diversity of cultures, important values in life, art and nature. 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, and interesting projects. The highlight with the older group was the intercultural workshop as they learned a lot of fascinating facts about Turkey from our volunteers Rez and Vekil and thoroughly enjoyed their presentation.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Summer camp Pećka 2023 – Music camp in Pećka, Mrkonjić Grad, BiH took place from 24th – 30th July. Two music workshops were held each day—one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Morning workshops included all participants engaging in rhythm games, working and playing on prepared compositions, but also making new ones and composing in a group, thereby developing teamwork, cooperation, and enhancing communication through musical interaction. The group was split up into smaller groups in the afternoon to work on songs they enjoy, create their own, or perfect a musical composition performed in the morning workshop. There was time set aside for sports, hiking, drawing, and movie nights in addition to music-related activities. All of the events described above aimed to promote and strengthen cross-cultural interaction among participants, volunteers, and, ultimately, volunteers and participants. 23 participants aged 16-19 participated in this camp.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In July, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 6 Weltwärts and ESC volunteers from Germany, Turkey and the UK.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Six volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, France, Croatia and Turkey (1-12 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 participated in HaCES Falta project in Spain. The project brought together 32 young people and youth workers who were former volunteers of the European Solidarity Corps, in projects coordinated by the organization Ser Joven, Spain. Young people of different backgrounds came together to think about interculturality, anti-racism, migration, cultural diversity, and intersectionality. In addition, they had the opportunity to share their experiences about how volunteering has affected their lives. Project participants were volunteers from Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Latvia, Senegal, Morocco, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Poland, and Serbia. They visited various local non-governmental organizations and learned about interculturality, solidarity, migration, and discrimination policy. They talked about the challenges in their society and how volunteering gave them the motivation and space to think about solutions to these problems and take initiatives in their local communities. The participants also worked on creating tools with new methods and games that can be used in working with young people to familiarize them with these topics.