Svitac (Firefly) Project Report – June 2017
Staff: Gordana Varcakovic, Dina Vosanovic, Milos Popic, Sanjin Vosanovic
Local volunteers: Adin Midzic, Milica Bacanov, Nadia Selimi, Ismar Mustafic, Maja Tomic, Ines Mocevic, Azra Pezerovic
‘Weltwearts’ volunteer: Alexander Likic
EVS volunteers: Eleonore Pearson, Benjamin Owens, Mahmut Taha Bicer, Yunus Seckin
Self-fundraising volunteers: Terlyn Noiles, Andrea Diaz-Cepeda
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
- Standard Language workshops – English and German
- Local language lessons for international volunteers
HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES
- This month Svitac signed the agreement on cooperation between the Brcko District Government and non-governmental organizations and organised the workshop with the focus group (age 16-18). The aim of this workshop was to get more information about the problems and needs of young people in our local community. 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 June, 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 paper turtles, elephants, and spinners in different colours, fans for hot summer days and clocks. They learned to write and pronounce letters A and B in local language, and new words in English and German related to animals’ body parts, greetings, numbers, days, months and homophones. Highlights with the younger group were Spanish workshops.
- Older group – They made cello graphs, doll houses and some free spirit art. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to animals’ body parts, greetings, numbers, days, months and homophones. In the Music Workshops the group learned a new song in local language (‘Šuma blista, šuma pjeva’), they repeated some old songs and they did some instruments playing). They also learned about rhythm and rhythmic music, and repeated some old songs. The highlights with the older group were Spanish workshops when they learned some basics.
EVS, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES
- In June, Svitac very much appreciated collaborating with 7 international volunteers: one ‘Weltwearts’ volunteer from Germany, four EVS volunteers from the UK and Turkey and two self-funded volunteers from Canada and USA.
- Visa process has started for one self-funded volunteer from USA (arrived in May)
- Sending EVS – One volunteer from Bosnia doing her EVS service in Lithuania (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 June and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the youth centre.
- Dina Vosanovic attended attended the second module of the training for youth workers which was organised by the Institution for Youth development KULT in Sarajevo from 15th to 18th June.