Svitac (Firefly) Project Report – October 2018

 

Staff: Gordana Varcaković, Dina Vošanović, Miloš Popić, Sanjin Vošanović

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Nadja Selimi, Merima Hidanović, Almira Čehić, Ines Močević, Aldina Pezerović, Katarina Popović, Jovana Lukić

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers: Florian Pauleck, Fabia Stroetmann

‘Erasmus+’ volunteers: Halil Kutlu, Halil Bodurer, Dominik Sujka                  

‘Omprakash’ volunteers:      –

‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers: Wouter Pels

 

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 magical month, not just for the participants but also for Svitac’s (Firefly’s) staff. The highlight for this month was definitely the Halloween Party. Everyone was very excited about decorations, scary mystery boxes, playful and interesting stations, amazing sweets and candies. October was team building month, since everyone was helping and supporting each other; preparations for the Halloween Party have brought everyone together. Firefly International’s Director, Diana McMicking, visited Svitac (Firefly) and on that occasion met the staff, local and international volunteers and visited some of the activities. 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 134 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in October, reconfirming their popularity in our small Brčko 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 origami giraffes and bears, Halloween bags for trick and treat and leaf printing. They learned to write and pronounce letters H, Č and Š in local languages, maths and new words in English and German related to non-violence, body parts, animals, fruit and Halloween. They learned a new song “Vuče, vuče bubo lenja” in local language. Highlight with the younger group was making decorations and video announcement for Halloween party.
    • Older group – They made origami frogs, 3D paper Mache of Frankenstein and Witch with glue and toilet paper. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to non-violence, competitions, anatomy and practiced small talk in English, German, Dutch, Arabic and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group was learning songs on the theme of Halloween. The participants played a lot of volleyball, basketball and team spirit games. The highlight with the older group were Comic book workshops when they were drawing their own comics and filmed one at the end.

 

ANNUAL EVENTS

  • Halloween Party 2018 – Svitac organised Halloween Party on 26th October. The first part of the Halloween was held in the morning for the youngest participants (4-7 years). They had an opportunity to come in costumes, listen the story of Hans & Gretel and watch Scooby-Doo cartoons in our self-made Halloween “Mini cinema”, after which they played games and enjoyed the snacks (‘Ghost-cookies’, ‘Bloody fingers’, ‘Mini-pumpkins’) and refreshment. Children, who did not have costumes, had an opportunity to have fun with face paint done by international volunteers. The second part of Halloween was held in the evening from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, and it was organized for the 8+ children. The Halloween Party attracted more than 130 participants.

 

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

  • In October, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 6 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwärts’ volunteers from Germany, three E+ volunteers from Turkey and Germany and one ‘Love Volunteers’ volunteer from the Netherlands.
  • Visa process has been started for two international volunteers from Germany and finished for four international volunteers from Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands.
  • Sending Erasmus + “Volunteering activity” and ‘Weltwärts’ – Four volunteers from Bosnia are doing their ‘Weltwärts’ and E+ service in Germany and Spain (7 and 12 months).

 

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

  • Svitac’s (Firefly’s) 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 October and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly’s) staff participated in the public debate entitled “Violence against women and domestic violence – the role and responsibility of educational institutions” within the project “Empowerment of prevention and fight against violence against women and domestic violence in Brčko District BiH” funded by UN Women BiH. The public debate brought together representatives of NGOs, primary, secondary and higher education institutions in the Brčko District of BiH.
  • Svitac’s (Firefly’s) representatives attended 6th Global ECPD Youth Forum which was held in Belgrade City Hall, October 27th-28th. This year’s Forum was held under the general theme “YOUTH POWER FOR THE COMMON FUTURE” and highlighted following discussion themes: global citizenship facing the threats of the new era, understanding each other (tolerance, diversity, equality and cooperation) and youth unemployment (challenges and opportunities). The forum was organised by The European Centre for Peace and Development (ECPD) University for Peace established by the United Nations, an international educational and research institution, in cooperation with the Western Balkans Fund, Danubian Centre for Cross-Border Cooperation–DCCB (Serbia), VAMK University (Finland), Economic Society of Albania (ESA) and FON University Skopje. This event brought together participants from over 50 countries around the world and it was opened by HE Federico Mayor, ECPD President and long-standing UNESCO Director-General.

 

 

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