https://svitac.org

Staff:   Gordana Varcakovic, Dina Vosanovic, Milos Popic, Sanjin Vosanovic

Local volunteers: Adin Midzic, Aldina Pezerovic, Nadia Selimi, Aleksa Gavric, Katarina Popovic, Merima Hidanovic, Mehmed Hidanovic, Nejra Ibrisimovic, Damir Sadic, Almedina Music, Ivana Knezic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers:  Manja Momirovic, Kim Hartmann

Erasmus+ volunteers: Tuba Çoban, Vedat Yalçın                  

Self-fundraising volunteers:  Jessica Perkes, Kirby Richman

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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
  • Standard Language workshops – English and German
    • English – standard English language workshops for teenagers and young people
    • German – standard German language workshops for teenagers and young people
  • Conversational Language workshops – English, German, Turkish
    • I love English – conversational English workshops for teenagers and young people
    • “Lasst uns Deutsch sprechen!/Pricajmo njemacki!“ (“Let’s speak German”) – conversational German workshops for teenagers and young people
    • Let’s speak Turkish – conversational Turkish workshops for teenagers and young people
  • Art&Crafts workshops – practical arts and crafts workshops for children and teenagers
  • Music workshops – samba, guitar, music workshops for children and young people
  • Sports workshops – for teenagers and young people
  • Drama workshops – for teenagers and young people
• Local language lessons for international volunteers

HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

• This month was busy and exciting with all preparations for the Spring festival and a group visit from ‘World Life Experience’ project. We celebrated International Earth Day and raised awareness about environment saving. International volunteers have also been doing a lot of different daily activities and they focused on different things (fundraising, promotion of the organization through social media etc.).
• About 128 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in April, reconfirming their popularity in our small Brcko District community. Participants were aged between 4 and 40 years old. The youngest and the oldest participants attended Culture and Art Diversity around the World workshops and English/German workshops for adults.
  • Younger group – They made penguins and butterflies with paper and wipes. They learned to write and pronounce letters B and V in local language, and new words in English and German related to pirates, robots and toys. They learned to sing ‘Zakleo se bumbar’ in local language and moves for the song ‘Zeko i potočić’. Highlight with the younger group were preparation workshops for the Spring festival.
  • Older group – They made flowers, butterflies, planet Earth, air balloons and various decorations for the spring festival. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to spring, Easter and exotic animals in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group was playing some music using boom whackers and learning how to improvise. The highlight with the older group were workshops about equality in friendship.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Spring festival 2018 – On 20th April, Omladinska organizacija Svitac (Firefly) organized an event for its participants, their families and friends. The event programme was full of entertaining and amusing performances. Svitac (Firefly) participants from the age 8+ group performed a flute composition, Tarega on guitar and two songs. At the end of the programme, our guests were invited to take part in some interactive activities held by Svitac (Firefly) local/international volunteers and Glossa – Centre for German language. The activities on offer were a paper flowers creations and games. Total participants: 110
• FutureShort festival – The festival licence is bought and translation of the films continued during April. The date of the screening will be confirmed in the beginning of May and there will be more work on subtitling and editing as well as advertising the event.

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In April, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 6 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwearts’ volunteers from Germany, two E+ volunteers from Turkey and two self-funded volunteers from USA.
• Visa process has been finished for two volunteers from USA.
• Sending E+ and ‘Weltwearts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their ‘weltwearts’ and E+ service in Germany, Spain and Italy (6, 10 and 12 months).
• World Life Experience –Svitac (Firefly) was host to a group of participants from the World Life Experience project from April 9-19th. World Life Experience takes 11 people around the world for 1 year: travelling, discovering, interacting and working with local people and organizations. https://www.worldlifeexperience.com/

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

• Svitac (Firefly) representatives continued to attend regular monthly meetings with the youth centre coordinator and the other NGOs based in Brčko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for April and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• Svitac (Firefly) staff attended round table on “Co-operation between the umbrella organizations for youth in BiH”, organized by the PRONI Youth Development Centre, as part of the project “Strengthening CSO capacities for the social environment” and the training in the field of advocacy called “The role of youth associations in the decision-making process”.
• Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended the presentation on the topic of harmonization of the regulations of the Brčko District of BiH with the acquis communautaire for members of the Commission for European Integration and Legislative Committees of the Assembly, Brčko District BiH Expert Service and representatives of youth organizations in the Brčko District of BiH organized in April by the Commission for European Integrations of the Brčko District Assembly BiH with support from the EUD/EUSR Office and the OSCE Mission in BiH.