https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Amila Kavazović, Nedim Kalajdžija, Eldar Bešić, Majida Hasković, Sara Andrić, Isidora Savić, Diana Osmić, Nikolina Marković, Edna Čorbadžić

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

‘ESC’ volunteers: Emily Jade Posner, Siobhan Rosemary Coleman, Merve Şule Gülaçar, Mustafa Yücel, Berika Göksu   

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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 very dynamic and marked the beginning of summer activities. The school holidays started in the third week of the month, so the participants, unburdened by school obligations, were able to relax and enjoy various activities prepared for them by our local and international volunteers. After two years of restrictions, we were finally able to enjoy the “Spring Festival” in its full capacity. Firefly International Director Jane visited the project and got to know our work in more detail. It was wonderful to have her here even though it was a short time. Svitac team has also welcomed a volunteer from Turkey Merve Sule Gulacar. She is a very kind and lovely person who has shown a big interest in the country, children and work and she fits well into the team. 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 160 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in June. 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 friendship bracelets, colourful cards for their parents, decorations for the Spring Fest, colourful Koi fish after a presentation on Japanese culture, and little hedgehogs after reading the children’s story “Hedgehog house”. The group continued to learn the Cyrillic alphabet practising writing the letters А, Б, В, Г, Д, Ђ, Ж (A, B, V, G, D, Đ, Ž) and continued practising reading short words and recognizing letters. This activity especially appeals to children, because they are able to combine letters into words. Among other things, they talked about restaurant etiquette, traffic behaviour, and body hygiene, and did various mini-quizzes. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to spring, family, house and numbers. In the Music Workshops, they continued to rehearse the songs „Visibaba mala“ (Little Snowdrop) and “Pet malih pačića” (Five little ducklings) and started learning a new song „Neću“ (I won’t). In the Dance workshops, the participants learned choreography to the song „Baby Shark“ and repeated choreography for the song „Chocolate“, nonetheless, they started learning new choreography for the song „Head, shoulders, knees and toes“. 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. Sports team activities were held every day in the park, and we also had mini Olympics wherein the participants had sports competitions and got medals for winning and participation. Highlight with the younger group was the workshop for World Environment Day when they throughout the game practised sorting garbage into special small containers – for plastic, paper and bio garbage.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: voluntarism in the local community, culture and its diversity, schools system in UK, Germany and BiH, labour market, studying abroad, sports and summer activities. 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 workshop for International Day against Child Labour when they discussed the methods how to fight child labour and were reminded that many children around the world are suffering, but also that they have a right to a happy childhood, education, healthy food and love.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Spring festival 2022 – On 15th June, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) organized an event for its participants, their families and friends. An interesting music program and arts and crafts stations prepared by local and international volunteers were intended for the family and friends of the participants, but also children and young people from Brčko District. The audience had the opportunity to hear performances on guitars, violin and flutes, see our youngest participants dancing and singing and as well to view videos from our previous summer camps. After the program, our guests had a chance to socialize with the refreshment. Total participants: 125

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In June, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 7 Weltwärts, and ESC volunteers from UK, Germany and Turkey.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Seven 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.
• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) staff attended a webinar on Post-Conflict Reconciliation that Omprakash, USA hosted in June. Participants discussed how to bridge the divide between groups of people after conflict, how to help societies to heal, how might remembering help and at what point might forgetting also allow societies to move forwards. EdGE Mentor Adam Abebe led the discussion with Omprakash’s Partners Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia), Remembering the Ones We Lost (South Sudan) and TAATOF (Foundation for Development and Non-Violent Communication), Syria.