Anti-fascist Day 2011 in Brcko, Bosnia. Hosted by Svitac

Would you like to volunteer with young people in Bosnia, working through art to help bring people together? With all your costs covered?! Firefly International is looking for 2 volunteers based in the UK aged between 20 – 30 to volunteer with our partner organisation Svitac in Brcko, Bosnia from April 1st 2012 – March 31st 2013.

The volunteers will work on either Music or Arts and Crafts programmes with young people from a variety of backgrounds, living in North East Bosnia. All costs will be covered (travel, accommodation and basic living expenses) as part of the Youth In Action European Commission programme.

More details:

Firefly is looking for 2 young people from the UK to volunteer for 12 months with Firefly’s partner organisation in Brcko, Bosnia, Svitac. You will organise and develop music and drama workshops and activities alongside local staff and volunteers. You will also work alongside local staff and volunteers to organise various events, festivals and music and arts camps, which will be held both inside and outside Brcko.

All of these activities aim to encourage communication and dialogue at a local level, between people of a wide variety of backgrounds and ethnicities in Brcko, Bosnia, and to give people in Brcko the chance to meet and work with people from outside of Bosnia. Due to Brcko’s special status as an ‘inter-ethnic district’ within an increasingly divided Bosnia and Herzegovina these workshops are all the more needed. While focusing on common projects rather than divisive issues the EVS volunteering project aims to emphasise and develop a sense of belonging to a wider European community, and at the same time explore complex issues surrounding conflict, national identity and nationalism.

If you are would like to take part in hands-on peace-building through the arts, informal educational and cultural activities, enthusiastic about tackling social problems, and want to co-operate with young people from other countries, then please contact us!

No previous international volunteering experience is required.

For more information on this excellent opportunity please email by March 1st: evs2012@fireflyinternational.org

Svitac Dance Workshops 2011 with

The Rebecca Davis Dance Company

www.rebeccadavisdance.com

Collaboration Between Svitac and RDDC:

The Rebecca Davis Dance Company (RDDC), in conjunction with Svitac, began a collaborative partnership in 2009 when Rebecca first travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) to establish a series of dance workshops designed to build self-esteem and encourage social integration amongst youth.  Since 2009, children have presented a dance work each year at the Annual Children’s Day Festival.

In 2010, RDDC selected two Brcko youth to travel to the United States for one-month of extensive dance training.  In 2011, Rebecca returned to Brcko during the Children’s Festival to prepare another short choreographic work which was performed at the Annual Festival.  The video excerpt of this dance can be seen here:

History of RDDC:

The Rebecca Davis Dance Company (RDDC) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit arts organization based in Philadelphia, USA.  It has been working in BiH since 2009.  The mission of RDDC is to build sustainable projects in post-conflict countries using dance training, performance and exchange as a tool of reconciliation in conjunction with community revitalization and economic development.

In 2005, RDDC was founded on the notion of bringing literary works, significant historical events and modern social issues to the stage using the medium of dance.  The Company has grown quickly, amassing a repertoire of six original full-length contemporary ballets: Antigone (2006), Helen Keller (2007), Darfur (2008), Greed: The Tale of Enron (2009), Van Gogh (2009), and Braving the New World (2010).

Presently, RDDC is focused on building sustainable dance programs for underserved youth in three countries: Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Guinea.  For more information, please visit:

www.rebeccadavisdance.com

www.youtube.com/rebeccadavisdance

Firefly International is very happy to announce that we will be taking part in this years Cultural Leadership International programme, to be held in October in Istanbul. The programme is coordinated by the British Council and brings together cultural leaders from around the globe for a week of activities. For more information please visit their website: http://creativeconomy.britishcouncil.org/cultural-leadership/news/british-cli-participants-announced/

We are extremely greatful to everyone who turned up to the Firefly ‘Peace and Reconcilliation’ Fundraising exhbition. The event was a huge success, with over £4000 raised and all rooms in the gallery full of people and beautiful works of art which had been donated to the event. Firefly primarily relies on donations from the public to continue it’s work in Former Yugoslavia, the Middle East and the UK, and funds from this event will go towards the Ellie Maxwell Youth Centre in Brcko, Bosnia.

Peace and Reconcilliation Exhibition, 30/08/11

We are very thankful to all the wonderful artists who donated their work, including  Patsy Hickmen; Marie-Lilas Schneiter; Renee Kennedy; Anita Walford; Sarah Anderson; Georgina Craig Harvey; Ben Constable Maxwell; Esme Howard; Lyn Constable Maxwell; Peter Constable Maxwell; Caroline Irby; Zia Constable Maxwell; Julia Rous; Andrew Conolley; Ann Witheridge; Michael Dormer; and members of the Svitac Art Group, Bosnia.

A special note of thanks to Marie-Lilas Schneiter, who did a wonderful job of volunteering to install the exhibition and of course to Virginia Maxwell, without whose tireless work the event would not have been possible.

Firefly is a European Voluntary Service (EVS) hosting and sending project. This year we have been involved in a number of wide ranging projects, including sending young people from the UK to to Bosnia to work with Firefly’s sister project, Svitac on Summer camps and ongoing inter-cultural dialogue projects & Iceland to work on Environmental and Cultural Diversity projects, as well as hosting a young person from Syria to work on Syrian refugee support in the UK.

If you would like to be an EVS volunteer then Firefly wants to hear from you! Please visit our EVS page and then email us for more information.

EVS is part of the Youth in Action programme, supported by the European Commission and administered in the UK by the British Council.

Media Coverage of the event

Firefly International is very happy to announce that the Ellie Maxwell Youth Centre at Svitac in Brcko, Bosnia is now officially open! The centre had it’s grand opening 9th July 2011, with users of the centre, Svitac staff, local and international volunteers and the media in attendance. It is now open for art workshops, english classes, music workshops, dance workshops and much more, and makes the work of Firefly in Bosnia much more sustainable. We will now be able to continue bringing young people of all backgrounds together long into the future.

We are extremely thankful to all who made this possible: the hundreds of donors who helped us make this dream a reality; Virginia Constable Maxwell and all of the Constable-Maxwell family who continue to be so clear, dedicated and passionate in their support for Svitac; Gordana Varcaković, Edina Vošanovic, Sanjin Vošanovic and all the staff and local and international volunteers in Svitac. Without all of you none of this would have been possible. Thank you! This centre is a beautiful and fitting tribute to the work and ideology that Ellie Maxwell started with Firefly, work we are proud to continue.

Local & International Staff and Volunteers in the Ellie Maxwell Youth Centre, Bosnia

Firefly International is very proud to announce it’s forthcoming exhibition ‘Peace and Reconciliation’, which will fund-raise for the Ellie Maxwell Youth Centre in Brcko, Bosnia. The Exhibition will include works from members of the Svitac Art Group, Bosnia; Artists from the Lavender Hill Studios; Lyn Constable Maxwell; Sarah Anderson; Georgina Craig Harvey; Patsy Hickmen; Ben Constable Maxwell; Esme Howard; Peter Constable Maxwell; Geoffrey Image; Caroline Irby; Julia Rous; Marie-Lilas Schneiter; Anita Walford and more.

All proceeds will go towards the Ellie Maxwell Youth Centre in Bosnia, which is a Svitac Project. For more information please see below:

Continue reading →

Firefly Director Dan Gorman recently took part in a rolling 24 hour fast for 3 young American anti-war activists currently being held in Iran. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained by Iran on July 31, 2009, while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Sarah has since been released on humanitarian health grounds, but Shane and Josh remain in the Evin prison. Read Dan’s piece here: Continue reading →

Firefly director Dan Gorman blogs about his most vivid experiences of Reel Festivals on the British Council blog.

The recent Reel Festivals in Lebanon and Scotland was an intense, inspiring experience, and I’m still processing what happened along the way.

Like all best laid plans, there was a huge amount of fluidity and unexpected crossovers…

Read the full piece here:

http://blog.britishcouncil.org/2011/05/reel-festivals-scotland-lebanon/