https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amna Balija, Aida Slomić, Milica Pelagić, Edna Čorbadžić, Valentina Perić, Maida Karahasanović, Helena Ristić, Aldin Hodžić, Milica Gajić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Ada Gabriela Groneick, Paula Scholz

‘ESC’ volunteers: İsmail Hakkı Yabacioğlu, Samet Başkaya, Hacer Balıkcı, Sedanur Bagay

‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers: Joanna Ewa Wywial

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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, despite the high temperatures, our participants have been having an amazing time learning and spending time together at the diverse, educational, and non-formal workshops that the Svitac team has prepared for them. Since the school holiday started, participation has increased noticeably, especially among older children. Our regular daily programs for children aged 4 to 13 continued to draw steady participation, while the specialized language and art sessions for those aged 10+ proved to be particular favourites. Having a larger, enthusiastic group brought a new burst of energy to our workshops, creating a lively and engaging atmosphere. Their excitement inspired more interaction, teamwork, and creativity, making each session more meaningful and fun. It also allowed the Svitac team to explore a wider range of activities while building a strong sense of community and collaboration among everyone involved. International volunteers have engaged in various daily activities, focusing on different initiatives such as supporting online events and promoting the organization through social media.
  • In July, approximately 168 participants regularly took part in Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia) activities. 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 did a wide variety of fun and creative crafts. Some of the highlights include making dream catchers, mini buckets, and paper watermelons, different types of birds, sloths, and even colourful monsters. The participants really enjoyed the hands-on activities, and it’s always great to see their creativity shine through. This month, we focused more on competitive games, outdoor games that involve teams, as well as playing educational cards and making jewellery. The group also engaged in rhythm practice, song rehearsals, and dance choreography. Participants continued to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, focusing on writing the letters Њ, O, П, P and C (Nj, O, P, R, S) along with simple words in Cyrillic. They performed warm-up exercises and children’s yoga, and every Thursday, they danced, participated in sports, and worked on maintaining focus and concentration while reading and listening to stories. In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops, they learned vocabulary related to summer, beach, ladybugs, fruit, boats, and peacocks. All workshops employ an educational visual method utilizing pictures and videos; these informal educational sessions aim to foster creativity, memory, motor skills, empathy, socialization, and tolerance for diversity. The highlight with the younger group was learning a new dance choreography.
    • Older group –They covered the following topics: tolerance vs. acceptance, happiness, food culture, and the environment. In this way, we aim to offer young people a safe and neutral environment where they can share their opinions and express both positive and negative emotions without fear of judgment. During the Language Workshops, the group focused on practicing everyday communication, reading and translating short texts, phrases, grammar, school assignments, and engaging projects. The highlight for the older group were the intercultural workshops as they learned a lot of fascinating facts about Poland and Turkey from our volunteers Joanna, Ismail, Samet, Sedanur and Hacer and thoroughly enjoyed their presentations.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Summer camp Pecka 2025 – A music camp in Pecka, Mrkonjic Grad, BiH, took place from July 20th to 27th. 20 people participated in the camp (young people from Brcko, staff members, foreign and local volunteers). The camp served as a dynamic platform for musical exploration, creativity, and intercultural connection. Each day featured two music workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Morning sessions involved all participants in rhythm games, collaborative rehearsals, and the creation of original compositions, encouraging teamwork and communication through music. In the afternoons, participants worked in smaller groups to arrange and develop music based on their own interests, whether by composing original songs, reinterpreting existing pieces, or refining the morning’s work. Beyond music, the camp schedule included time for sports, hiking, drawing, and movie nights. The overall goal of the camp was to promote and strengthen meaningful intercultural exchange and cooperation among participants and volunteers.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In July, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) greatly appreciated the collaboration with 7 international volunteers from Germany, Turkey and Poland.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Seven volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Austria, Greece, Italy and Belgium (2 weeks-12 months).

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) staff continued to participate in regular monthly meetings with the youth centre coordinator and other NGOs in Brčko. The goal of these meetings was to discuss the conditions and schedules necessary for the continuation of the centre’s activities.