https://svitac.org

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

Local volunteers: Adin Midzic, Milica Bacanov, Nadia Selimi, Aleksa Gavric, Katarina Popovic, Merima Hidanovic, Ivana Knezic, Semir Salihovic

‘Weltwearts’ volunteers:  Manja Momirovic, Kim Hartmann

EVS volunteers: Hüseyin Şeref Çalış, Merve Güçlü, Vlatko Mircheski                 

Self-fundraising volunteers:   –

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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 we’ve celebrated International Tolerance Day and International Day of Children’s Rights. That’s why the main aim of all Svitac (Firefly) activities was to promote the importance of world tolerance, stability and security, and the importance of cooperation and teamwork. 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 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 made kites, leaf man and they started to prepare New Year’s decorations. They learned to write and pronounce letters N, O, P in local language, and new words in English and German related to airplane and body parts, school supplies and family members. They learned the song “Zvončići” – (Jingle-bells) in local language which they will perform at the New Year’s party. Highlight with the younger group were workshops related to International Day of Tolerance and Children’s Rights Day.
  • Older group – They made autumn poster, paper airplanes, flakes and some New Year’s decorations. In the Language Workshops, the group learned new words related to autumn and airplane parts in English, German and Turkish. In the Music Workshops the group had first introduction to piano, notes, C mayor key and had an opportunity to play the electric keyboard. The highlight with the older group was the puppet show presented for Antifascism Day.

ANNUAL EVENTS

• Anti-fascism Day 2017 – On the 9th November Svitac (Firefly) celebrated the International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism. 4-7 year old group used an original puppet theatre script as a means of communicating the topic of antifascism. Local and international volunteers created the puppet theatre in advance and performed it at the beginning of the workshop. Afterwards they spoke with the group about the different characters, which role they played and was good and bad about their actions. 9-15 years old group did a similar workshop. They used the same puppet theater, presented it to the children and spoke with them about it, but afterwards created a comic together based on the puppet story. With 16+ years old group, Svitac (Firefly) organised an evening discussion about the topic of fascism. They did brainstorm about the term and discussed a definition of fascism. They also watched parts of the movie „Die Welle“(The Wave) and spoke about them. The movie depicts the story of a teacher in a German school who is setting up a self-designed experiment in which he creates an autocratic community. Total participants: 45
• Tolerance and culture diversity through music, art and sport 2017 – The project is funded by the Brcko District Government, and within the project a series of music, creative and sports workshops will be held promoting cultural diversity, values of tolerance and mutual respect. In this way, the creative expression, the international engagement and the collaborative work of the participants in building and maintaining the culture of reconciliation are encouraged, providing children and young people with a space for creative and educational learning in order to strengthen respect for the community to which they belong. The project will last from 27th November to 16th December 2017 and will be held in the Brcko District area, at the Youth Centre premises. The project will directly involve 60 children, teenagers and young people from the Brcko District area.

EVS, WELTWARTS AND OTHER VOLUNTEERS’ PROGRAMMES

• In November, Svitac (Firefly) very much appreciated collaborating with 5 international volunteers: two ‘Weltwearts’ volunteers from Germany and three EVS volunteers from Macedonia and Turkey.
• Visa process has been finished for three EVS and weltwearts volunteers from Macedonia and Germany.
• Sending EVS and ‘Weltwearts’ – One volunteer from Bosnia is doing his ‘weltwearts’ service in Germany (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 November and discuss activities scheduled to take place in the Youth Centre.
• Svitac (Firefly) representatives attended the public hearing on the Draft Law on the Prohibition of Smoking and Other Forms of Use of Tobacco and Tobacco Products in Public Places in the Brcko District of BiH. The public hearing was organized by the Commission for Labour, Health and Social Protection
• Svitac (Firefly), as a member of the informal network ‘Promote Positive’, attended a Round Table on Prevention and Incidents of Prejudice, Discrimination and Hate Speech. These adverse events are unfortunately very present in Brcko District, and it is necessary to better define and respect these issues in this area. In the context of a society that is still facing very difficult problems from the past war, in the context of the difficult economic and social situation that BiH citizens are facing every day, these issues deserve special attention. The round table was organized by the Human Rights Commission of the Brcko District Assembly of BiH supported by the OSCE BiH Mission.