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, Ema Zenunovic, Ines Mocevic, Jovana Lukic, Ljiljana Jovanovic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers:  Manja Momirovic, Kim Hartmann

Erasmus+ volunteers: Tuba Çoban, Vedat Yalçın                  

Omprakash volunteers:  Trevor Waters

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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 very hot and extremely busy. Tor and Harry Crawley, from Firefly International UK, visited Svitac (Firefly) and spent lovely three days with us getting to know better our staff and volunteers, and helping with our regular activities. Svitac and the members of the ASUBiH Local Team Brčko officially launched the Eco Project in order to raise awareness about global warming and protecting the environment. At the same time we had to say goodbye to our regular local volunteer Aldina – we hope she will find time to do occasionally volunteering with us in the future. 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 135 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in May, 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 octopus, kangaroo, bunnies and cats. They learned to write and pronounce letters G, Đ, E, and Ž in local languages, and new words in English and German related to body parts, nature, sea, space and the solar system. They learned a new song in local language ‘Žalile se žabice’ (“The frogs complained”). Highlight with the younger group were workshops when they made their own aquariums.
  • Older group – They made snow globes, piggy banks and handbags. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to emotions, nature and ecology in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group was playing some music using boom whackers and learning how to improvise. The participants played a lot of volleyball, baseball, team spirit games and learned basic rules for rugby. The highlight with the older group were workshops about ecology when members were taught how to prevent simple pollution in their daily lives.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• FutureShort festival 2018 – The festival was organised on 18th May. The event in Brčko was a part of global FutureShorts film festival spring season. Short films that were screened in the Youth Centre were also screened in 100 cities and 40 countries all over the world. Spring season program included 5 short films. The audience in Brčko chose the film “WANNABE” (dir. Simon Jannis Lenz) as their favourite film.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Total participants: 65

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In May, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 5 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwearts’ volunteers from Germany, two E+ volunteers from Turkey and one Omprakash volunteer from USA.
• Visa process has been started for one volunteer 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).

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 May and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• From 18th to 25th May, Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended the International Peace Academy 2018 in Dresden, Germany. The event drew 400 participants from almost 40 countries, who gathered to find out where and why our world is in a precarious situation and what we can do about it. The topic of the conference was “What’s the world worth to you?”. Svitac (Firefly) has also had presentations about its work at primary and secondary schools in Halle/Saale, Germany, organised by weltwarts partner Friedenskreis e.V.
• Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended partner conference “Strengthening our network of weltwärts organisations in the Balkans” from 21st to 26th May in Popova Sapka, Tetovo, Macedonia, organized by Centre for Education and Development, Macedonia and Friedenskreis Halle – Germany, funded by weltwärts programme.