Svitac (Firefly) Project Report – January 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, Semir Salihovic, Ines Mocevic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers:  Manja Momirovic, Kim Hartmann

Erasmus+ volunteers: Tuba Çoban, Vedat Yalçın                  

Self-fundraising volunteers:  Taran Anderson

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 electric guitar and bass were added to the weekly samba percussion workshop. Developing a short musical idea with active involvement from all participants in the process was enjoyable, fun and educational for everybody. The art workshops with the older participants allowed both groups a chance to express themselves through a not only visual but tactile medium. Not only did this provide both groups with a fair amount of enjoyment but gave us a chance with the older group to encourage the creation of peace symbols and discuss the meaning and importance of said symbols. 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 120 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in January, 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 ladybug, penguins, bees, and rocket and learned about the Universe. They learned to write and pronounce letters U, V in local language, and new words in English and German related to hobbies, studying, football, running, manners and hygiene. They learned a new song in local language “Zeko i potočić” (Bunny and the water stream) and played some instruments. Highlight with the younger group was recording the video ”Bunny and the water stream”.
    • Older group – They made Marionette dolls in the shape of their favourite animals and a big tree that was painted trough all 4 sessions. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to ‘dream job’, human body and manners in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group was introduced to C-major scale, duration of musical notes and learned a theme melody from “Star Wars” movies. The highlight with the older group was making salt dough and sculptures with it (animals and peace symbols).

 

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In January, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 7 international volunteers and interns: two ‘Weltwearts’ volunteers from Germany, two E+ volunteers from Turkey, one self-funded volunteer from USA and two interns from Canada.
  • Visa process has been started for four internationals from Turkey and Canada.
  • Sending E+ and ‘Weltwearts’ – One volunteer from Bosnia is doing his ‘weltwearts’ service in Germany (12 months).
  • EVS name is officially gone – instead of this volunteering in E+ for 2018 is simply called “Volunteering activity”. The structure and rules applying to Volunteering activities remain largely unchanged from those for EVS.

 

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 January and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.

 

 

Categories:

Activities