https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Amila Kavazović, Nedim Kalajdžija, Mira Božić, Nataša Maksimović, Eldar Bešić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers: Charlotte Stella Kramer, Lenja Helen Schulze Wessel

‘ESC’ volunteers: Maika Luise Dils, William James Caleb Strevens 

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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 full of activities even though school has started, and with it, school obligations. We made music with our participants, did some beautiful art&crafts items, quizzes for the young ones and enjoyed sunny weather outdoors. New volunteers started arriving in Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia), so a new work schedule was made accordingly. We wish our local volunteers a happy start to the school year and studies and look forward to some cooperation in the coming months. 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 150 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) activities in September. 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 the beginning of autumn (clothes to wear, food to eat), the circus and clowns, scarecrows, caterpillars and butterflies, crabs, octopuses, coats of arms and flags, and they made these things from various decorative materials and cardboard rolls. This month, local volunteer Nedim prepared a “Millionaire” quiz adapted to the age of our participants, who had a lot of fun answering the questions. The group continued to learn the Cyrillic alphabet practising writing the letters Р, С, Ћ (R, S, Ć) and continued practising reading short words and recognizing letters. In the English, German and Turkish language workshops they learned words related to autumn, greetings and colours. In the music workshops, they practised the song ”Brat Jakob” (Brother Jakob) in different languages (French, German, and English). Sports team activities, warm-up exercises and yoga for children were held in the park. 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 International Democracy Day workshop where they learned how important equal rights are for everyone.
    • Older group –  They discussed the following topics: cultural diversity, young people and elections, youth in policy, violence and non-violence. 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 repeated verbs in the present tense, learned nouns for furniture, wrote dictations, read and translated short texts and phrases, worked on practising everyday communication and grammar, and got help with homework and school projects. The highlight with the older group was the workshop for International Peace Day when they discussed what peace means to them.

ESC, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In September, Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) very much appreciated the collaboration with 4 Weltwärts and ESC volunteers from UK and Germany.
• Visa process has been started for three volunteers from Germany.
• Sending ESC and ‘Weltwärts’ – Five volunteers from Bosnia are doing their service in Germany, Spain and Turkey (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 participated in APV (Advanced planning visit) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany with Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) ESC partner Bezirksjugendwerk der AWO Hessen-Süd e.V. The main aim of the meeting was to plan the Youth exchange by the end of this year. During this youth exchange, the German participants will learn about and actively participate in the unique peacebuilding work in Brčko District. The project will offer them the opportunity to discover Bosnia and Herzegovina’s unique culture and natural beauty while gaining an understanding of Brčko District’s role in post-conflict reconciliation as a self-governing zone between the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. The residual ethnic tensions affect the young people in Brčko’s community, and the participants will see how Svitac’s (Firefly in Bosnia’s) work is essential in reconciling national differences and providing constructive youth activities.