https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amina Omerović, Teodora Krsmanović, Amina Smajić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Jonathan Ludwig, Simon Müller

‘ESC’ volunteers: Yasmine Mirza Stoner, Noama Ayeesha Rana Chaudhry 

ProjectReportOctober2023 (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 new local volunteers Amina and Teodora joined the Svitac team and brought fresh ideas as well as a lot of joy and good vibes! The UK volunteer Noama spoke about the environment and climate change with 16+ while the younger participants discovered a lot of interesting and educational topics. At the music workshops, the samba group continued to put a lot of effort into developing fresh melodies and rhythms. 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 October. 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 continued with the theme of autumn and worked with materials from nature, such as leaves, branches, and cones, and made interesting creations and animal shapes. The youngest participants enjoyed the creative part and modelling fun items. The group continued with music workshops, practicing rhythms and rehearsing songs. Participants continued to learn and write numbers; this month, they learned to write numbers up to 20. They did warm-up exercises and yoga for children, and every Thursday they danced, did sports and practiced attention and concentration while reading and listening to stories. At the end of the month, they participated in the Halloween Event, where they had an opportunity to wear different homemade costumes, dance, and make beautiful little pumpkins. In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to numbers, food, body parts, autumn, and weather. 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 the workshop for World Children’s Day when they made motivational messages written in English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: children’s rights, peace, non-violence, and the values that are most important to them. 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, school homework, and interesting projects. This month the participants also talked about food, spices, mimes, Bavarian culture and tradition, and the history of the English language. The highlight with the older group was the workshop for The International Day of Non-Violence when they discussed how the activities that advocate non-violence through education and public awareness can reaffirm the desire for a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding, and non-violence.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In October, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 4 Weltwärts and ESC volunteers from Germany, and the UK.
• Visa process has been finished for Jonathan. Simon is still waiting for the new certified criminal record background document to arrive from Germany to be able to continue his residence visa process.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, France and Spain (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 the SNAC (Strategic National Agencies Cooperation) Volunteering Conference 2023 – Shaping Volunteering in Europe and Beyond, which took place in Podgorica, Monte Negro. The conference aimed to strengthen the European Solidarity Corps Programme and volunteering in general. Its objectives were to support the implementation of the Council Recommendation on the mobility of young volunteers across the EU, to create a space to connect and exchange between different stakeholders of the program, to influence the midterm evaluation of the program and the upcoming shaping of the new program, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the first deadline of the European Solidarity Corps and to give visibility to the implementation of the European Solidarity Corps in the partner regions of EU.
• Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) representatives participated in the fourth weltwärts partner conference in Berlin/Germany. The conference was organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) of the weltwärts programme for weltwärts implementing organisations who send volunteers to countries of the Global South via weltwärts or accept volunteers from there. The goal of the partner conference was to strengthen the cooperation and networking of partner organizations from the countries of the Global South and German implementation organizations. In addition, they offered an excellent opportunity to discuss program-related questions with representatives of partner organisations and the PSC.