Svitac Project Report – November 2016

Staff: Gordana Varcakovic, Dina Vosanovic, Milos Popic, Sanjin Vosanovic

Local volunteers: Adin Midzic, Sladjana Basic, Katarina Mirkovic, Nadia Selimi, Matea Brkic, Ismar Mustafic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteer: Alexander Likic

EVS volunteers: Monica Reeves, Catherine Rolley, Eleonore Pearson, Benjamin Owens

Self-fundraising volunteers: –

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
  - 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
- 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
Local language lessons for international volunteers

HIGHLIGHTS ON MONTH’S ACTIVITIES

This month was very busy with the Anti-fascism Day and Tolerance week preparations. International volunteers have 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 activities in November, 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 learned some interesting facts about the planets and the solar system, made telescopes out of toilet paper, read story about aliens, listened to different pieces of music and learned the words in English language. A highlight with the younger group was Tolerance week when children drew their parents and friends with the goal to learn that people are different but unique and that we have to respect each other.
- Older group – They watched a short video clip from the movie “Alone in Berlin” and discussed the topic of the movie. In the Language Workshops, the group was learning and reading texts in English concerning space and animals. They learned the order of the planets and their names in English language. In the Music Workshops the group started learning the song “Walking in the winter wonderland“ and practiced the song “Yellow submarine” on boom whackers, keyboard and guitar and also learned the lyrics. At the end of the month they learned the song “Sweet child of mine” by Guns’N’Roses and analyzed the text of the song.
Filming and Testimonials – The international volunteer Monica Reeves kept working on this project in collaboration with other Svitac volunteers.

ANNUAL EVENTS

Anti-fascism Day 2016 – This year Svitac organised three workshops for three age groups (3-7, 8-15 and 16+). The first group (3-7) was encouraged to take part in a brief discussion on the topic of ‘anti-fascism’ through the method of storytelling. The second group (8-15) had discussions (with international volunteers) of the topic of fascism, especially during the Second World War. The third group (16+) participated in discussion on “Antifascism in modern society”. Participants had the opportunity to talk about this topic and about the definition of fascism, characteristics and examples of fascism in our modern society. During the discussion, they watched the video clip on “The theory of social influence”, which shows a certain psychological patterns of behavior in human beings, such as the desire to follow and be part of the group or to blindly follow authority. Total participants: 38
Tolerance week – The network to combat hatred called “Promote positive” Brcko (Svitac is a member), with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the International Day for Tolerance through seven-day activities entitled “Week of Tolerance”, which took place from 10^th to 16^th November. Some of the activities were: action – coffee for a book under the slogan “Read the book offline, not hate online”, conversation with students of Economics Faculty in Brcko about tolerance and diversity in their environment, the football game (Women Football Club “Locomotive” Brcko sent a message of tolerance during football match against WFC “Modrica” demonstrating that differences are respected in football as well). Svitac EVS volunteer, Monica Reeves, has prepared a short film with scenes activities that were held during the week. You can watch film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQMnnT5kAcA&t=191s

EVS, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

In November, Svitac very much appreciated collaborating with 5 international volunteers: one ‘weltwarts’ volunteer from Germany and four EVS volunteers from the UK.
Sending EVS – Two volunteers from Bosnia doing their EVS service in Cyprus (9 months) and Lithuania (12 months).
The EVS re-accreditation process is finished. Svitac has been accredited as Sending, Receiving and Coordinating Organisation on the basis of Accreditation project number 2016-1-SI02-KA110-013893 within the European Commission’s Erasmus+: Youth in Action programme. This accreditation is valid till 31.12.2020.
Visa process has been started for 1 international volunteer (arrived in November).

MEETINGS and PRESENTATIONS

Svitac representatives continued to attend regular monthly meetings with the youth center coordinator and the other NGOs based in Brcko. The purpose of the last meeting was to share information about activities and plans for November and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the youth center.

Categories:

Activities