Svitac (Firefly) Project Report – February 2018

 

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midzic, Aldina Pezerovic, Nadia Selimi, Aleksa Gavric, Katarina Popovic, Merima Hidanovic, Ivana Knezic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers:  Manja Momirovic, Kim Hartmann

Erasmus+ volunteers: Tuba Çoban, Vedat Yalçın                  

Self-fundraising volunteers:  Taran Anderson, Jessica Perkes, Kirby Richman

Interns:  Camila Catalan-Munoz, Hanna Lonergan

 

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 has been short but very busy and exciting. There was unannounced visit by professional musician from Belgrade (jazz guitar player Branko Trijić), who attended samba workshop and gave some tips and tricks on African music and its possible applications on guitar and bass. The highlight of the month was the Mother Language workshop ‘Four Languages’ which we did in cooperation with association “BZK Preporod” – preparing, planning and executing the workshops were incredibly fun and a great way to be creative. It was fun teaching and seeing four different languages being learned in one room. 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 125 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in February, 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 apple crowns, 3D fish and rainbows. They learned to write and pronounce letters Z, Ž in local language, and new words in English and German related to food, friendship, peace and body parts. They learned “Rainbow song” in English and Makaton signs and made drawings while listening to music. Highlight with the younger group was workshop for International Social Justice Day when they made poster with umbrella containing the words ‘Justice, Hope, Love and Rights’.
    • Older group – They made name shields, cards for Valentine’s with 3D text inside and a big pencil holder. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to emotions (happy, angry, sad, and sick) and how to express them in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group learned c major scale and played some music using boom whackers and learning how to improvise. The highlight with the older group was the volleyball tournament when our international volunteers explained the rules and how this game is played.

 

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In February, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 9 international volunteers and interns: two ‘Weltwearts’ volunteers from Germany, two E+ volunteers from Turkey, three self-funded volunteers from USA and two interns from Canada.
  • Visa process has been finished for two interns from Canada and has been started for two self-funded volunteers from USA.
  • Sending E+ and ‘Weltwearts’ – One volunteer from Bosnia is doing his ‘weltwearts’ service in Germany (12 months).

 

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

  • Svitac (Firefly) representatives continued to attend regular monthly meetings with the youth centre coordinator and the other NGOs based in Brcko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for February and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
  • Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended the Live Streaming discussion organized by EU Info centre Brčko District. The EU Info Centres from all over BiH participated in the discussion as well as Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark. Some of the discussion topics were: EU values, entry into the EU, advantages, human rights, democracy, market, equality, tolerance, mobility, peace/security and rule of law.

 

 

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