Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) Project Report – October 2024

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

Local volunteers: Eldar Bešić, Amna Balija, Aida Slomić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Ada Gabriela Groneick, Paula Scholz

‘ESC’ volunteers: Pia Sophie Jonas, Canan Karahan

      

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, lovely and sunny weather brought us numerous enjoyable and interesting activities and important topics for both younger and older participants. With the little ones, we learned to write letters, talked about shapes and colours, and completed worksheets through drawing and problem-solving. Our international volunteers offered conversational workshops in German with high school students on German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), a significant date in recent history, and assisted with preparations for the German language diploma test (DSD). Developing social and intercultural competency is another important benefit of these conversational courses. 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 143 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 talked about why seasons change and about films (how they were made, and filmography in general). The participants spoke about autumn in more detail, the animals that live in the forest (fox, wolf, and hedgehog), discussed shapes (circles, cubes, triangles, roller) and modelled them from plasticine. The youngest participants enjoyed the creative part and modelling fun items (e.g. hedgehogs, jellyfish, rainbows, favourite dish, masks in the shape of a cat, apples (jabuke) – as a symbol for the letter J and little mice for the letter M, various Halloween decorations in the form of ghosts, bats, and witches). The group continued with practicing rhythms, rehearsing songs, and dance choreographies. The participants did short writing exercises, which included the Latin letters E, F, I, J, G, H, K, L, Lj, and M. They did warm-up exercises and yoga for children, and every Thursday they danced, did sports and practiced reading and listening to stories (The Lying Shepherd, Puss in Boots, Twig in the Wind and the Hedgehog, The Ugly Duckling). In the English, German, and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to autumn, professions, sports, food and drinks. 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 a workshop for World Values Day when they talked about things that are important to them in life.
      • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: nonviolence, values, mobbing, books, female writers and their recognition in society. 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. The highlight with the older group was the workshop for International Day of Nonviolence when they discussed mobbing in schools and everyday life, as well as the reasons, repercussions, and ways to support and aid.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In October, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 4 international volunteers from Germany.
  • Visa process has been started for four volunteers from Germany.
  • Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Belgium and Poland (4-12 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 finished the implementation of the project “Values for young people through volunteerism” with the fourth event “I am proud of my volunteer achievements”. At this event, the projects of volunteers who participated in some earlier volunteer engagements were presented. Promotion, discussions, and debates with previous volunteers of short-term and long-term projects were a good opportunity for the participants to become familiar with the advantages and challenges of these youth development methods.
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Activities, news, Project Report