Volunteer Stories
Emma de Leeuw was a volunteer at Svitac March to August 2012
A life changing experience!
I was 21 when I did choose to volunteer for Svitac. Having been before in Bosnia- Herzegovina it was my wish to contribute to give people in Bosnia-Herzegovina more chances to meet new people and learn more things. I had experienced that to meet people from other countries and learn new things wasn’t as possible in Bosnia- Herzegovina as in my home country the Netherlands.
In the application it requested to come up with your own idea for workshops in Brčko. There was a lot of freedom for my own wishes. I decided to develop a course on journalism to give the youth in Brčko the possibility to spread their needs in their community.
During my time as volunteer I learned to work in a warm, welcoming, diverse team. I not only made a youth magazine with young people from Brčko, but also assisted on other projects. Such as summer camps, language lessons and a film festival (the first held in Brčko after the war ).
Svitac has proven to be a trustworthy organization, which introduces the volunteer to the local community and supports the volunteer throughout his/her learning process. It offers a wide range of activities and is most of all a warm welcoming network of inspiring people from all over the world!
Emilie was an EVS summer volunteer for 3 months with Svitac
Why did you get involved as a volunteer?
I was taking a year out from studying to explore different career options and get some work experience. I really wanted to travel and go abroad, and had already interned with an organisation that worked with youth, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to continue in this line of work!
Roddy was an EVS music volunteer for 12 months with Svitac in Bosnia Why did you get involved as a volunteer?
Why did you get involved as a volunteer?
It was the perfect thing for me at that stage in my life – I’d worked with young people in the past, and wanted to get back to it, while also having fresh challenges and new experiences.
Give us a brief summary of what you did as a volunteer.
I set up and ran trumpet lessons, as part of a team I coordinated and delivered english practice sessions for young adults, fun day events and summer camps.
Bojan is a local volunteer with Svitac in Bosnia
Bojan is a local volunteer with Svitac. He helps with a wide range of activities, supporting workshops and annual events including summer camps and Future Shorts film festival. Bojan is an important part of Svitac’s volunteer team with his charisma, excellent media skills and film‐making talent. Much his work with Svitac is alongside international volunteers. Here he takes some time to tell us about his experiences.
Why did you get involved?
Because Svitac truly offers unique opportunities to work with children and international volunteers, providing a lot of learning possibilities.
Dorotea was an EVS summer volunteer for 3 months with Svitac in Bosnia
I have always been interested in working for an NGO that deals with post‐ conflict dialogue. I felt that volunteering for Svitac would provide me with the opportunity to do this, whilst gaining new skills.