https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Maja Keserović, Eldar Bešić, Nikolina Marković

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

‘ESC’ volunteers: Emily Jade Posner, Siobhan Rosemary Coleman, Jara Madleen Schulze, Viktor Hüllmann, Ömer Faruk Kizil, Ufuk Birdal Gürbüz                

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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 has been very stressful with Covid, news of the war and daily price hikes. Many remembered the war period of the 90s, and anxiety and fear became our daily routine. Still, despite all the bad news around us, this has been a very busy month for the Svitac team. With better weather, the number of activities and participants continued to increase, and we welcomed Ömer and Ufuk, volunteers from Turkey who stayed with us throughout March. 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 142 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in March. 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 clouds out of colourful paper, flowers and roses out of plasticine, birdhouses, butterflies and pigeons as symbols of peace and tolerance, symbolically marked the Moldovan Spring Festival – Martisor – the arrival of the new season and made amulets for good luck. They celebrated World Happiness and Water Day by making a big poster with balloons, writing words that mean happiness to them, and talking about saving water and the importance of water in general. The group continued to learn the alphabet practising writing the letters Š, T, U and drawing objects that start with one of these letters. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to days of the week, animals and fruit. In the Music Workshops, they continue to rehearse the songs „Visibaba mala“ (Little Snowdrop) and “Pet malih pačića” (Five little ducklings). In the Dance workshops, the participants continued to learn a dance called Rock Lobster and rehearsed choreography to the songs „Chocolate“ and „Gummy bear“. 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 for Zero Discrimination Day when they talked about equality amongst people and being nice to everybody.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: racial discrimination, the current political situation in BiH, the responsibility of young people, the impact of celebrities or people from their environment on young people, public transport of students, the harmfulness of cigarette consumption and a healthier lifestyle. 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 event for The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination when they shared their views on racism and migration in Europe and personal experiences of discrimination.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In March, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 8 Weltwärts and ESC volunteers from UK, Germany and Turkey.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Seven volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany 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) representatives attended the second event of the #SeeTheHuman series! The event focused on the experiences of those who have been on the front lines of war and who have managed to bring people together across divides to create peace. The event was hosted by Jonathan Cohen, Executive Director of Conciliation Resources.