https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midžić, Nadja Selimi, Merima Hidanović, Almira Čehić, Mehmed Hidanović, Ines Močević, Aldina Pezerović, Ivana Knežić, Jovana Lukić

‘Weltwärts’ volunteers:  Florian Pauleck

‘Erasmus+’ volunteers: Halil Kutlu, Halil Bodurer                 

‘Omprakash’ volunteers:            –

‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers:  Ashley Provost, Wouter Pels

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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!/Pričajmo njemački!“ (“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 a month of new beginnings – a new school year started, new volunteers arrived in Svitac (Firefly), and they came up with great ideas for new projects. Volunteers have quickly become a good team ready to contribute to the many activities and projects Svitac (Firefly) has planned for the coming months. 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 136 participants regularly attended Svitac’s (Firefly’s) activities in September, 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 greeting cards, origami rabbits and caterpillars. They learned to write and pronounce letters Ć and F in local languages, maths and new words in English and German related to wildlife, domestic animals and Texas. They learned a new song ‘Squirrel‘ in local language and the rhythm of “Makarena”. Highlight with the younger group were thematic music workshops about languages.
  • Older group – They made T-shirts about themselves and posters for International days of peace and democracy. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to greetings, autumn, animals and school in English, German, Dutch, Arabic and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group was practising boomwackers tunes and Samba percussion instruments to develop a feeling for rhythm. The participants played a lot of volleyball, basketball and team spirit games. The group also played games which are traditionally played in Turkey. The highlight with the older group were presentations about Texas and Germany prepared by Svitac’s (Firefly’s) volunteers Ashley and Florian.

ERASMUS+, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In September, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 5 international volunteers: one ‘Weltwärts’ volunteer from Germany, two E+ volunteers from Turkey and two ‘Love Volunteers’ volunteers from USA and the Netherlands.
• Visa process has been started for four international volunteers from Germany, Turkey and the Netherlands.
• Sending E+ and ‘Weltwärts’ – Five volunteers from Bosnia are doing their ‘Weltwärts’ and E+ service in Germany and Spain (7 and 12 months).
• Weltwärts South-North Partner Conference 2018 – From 10th to 16th September a four-day conference was held for Weltwärts partner organizations in Berlin. During the conference all partners from Africa, Asia, South America, Europe and Oceania had the opportunity to deeply develop their partnerships and talk about further steps to improve the quality of the program before, during, and after the volunteer service. Over 70 partner organizations attended the conference. After the conference, participants attended the 10th anniversary of the Weltwärts program held on 15th of September, at the Berlin Congress Centre.

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 September and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• Svitac (Firefly) staff participated The Founding Assembly of the Youth Council of the Brčko District of BiH, held on 19th September in the Youth Centre. The Assembly was attended by organizations registered in the Register of Youth Organizations of the Brčko District of BiH. Svitac (Firefly) is one of the Youth Council’s founders and it was a great privilege to participate the preparatory meetings in previous months and be a part of the good politics and strategies for young people from Brčko District. As representatives of Svitac (Firefly) Miloš Popić will be a member of the Management Board, and Aldina Pezerović will be a member of the Youth Council Assembly for the first 12 months.
• Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended presentation about symbols, signs and graffiti and discussion about the positive and negative impact they have in work with young people. The presentation was held on 20th September in Bijeljina, organized by OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and attended by members of the network ’Promote Positive’ from Brčko, Tuzla, Gradačac and Bijeljina.