ANNUAL REPORT 2004

Camps Report - Summer 2004, Savudrija, Croatia

The camp aimed to provide a neutral space for children away from Brcko to have a holiday and an opportunity to spend time with and make friends with other children from different backgrounds in a context where that difference matters less. The children themselves most often expressed their hopes for the camp in terms of a hope to have a good time and to meet new friends. 'I think it was great that we met new friends' (Child participant)

A second aim was to increase the confidence of the older teenagers participating in the camp by giving them the chance to act as volunteers on the camp. A significant outcome of this was that two of these teenage helpers, and one of the younger participants have since gone on to organise youth activities, such as table tennis and arts and crafts workshops in Brcko through Svitac’s youth centre and with support from Svitac staff.

As a result of the positive changes in Bosnia, not least in Brcko Distrikt, in the past few years the context in which summer camps now function has been altered. There have been more opportunities for travel for some families in recent years, and more opportunities for multiethnic contact for all children. However going on holiday and being in a new environment without their families provides an opportunity for forging friendships that remains unique. Svitac worked this year on providing an opportunity for children who they have worked with for some years and who have a demonstrated commitment, in addition to trying to include those who are the most difficult to reach. This was achieved through a strong collaboration with 'Kuca Prijateljstva' (House of Friendship), Brodusa, which is a part of the Amica Network. Five participants on the camp came from this group. This was a great success, allowing a greater mixing of ethnic and social groups on the camp and will definitely be continued and expanded on in 2005. A total number of 30 people partook in the camp, consisting of 23 participants, 2 staff and 5 international volunteers.

The international volunteers who took part in the summer camp project were from Britain, Canada and New Zealand this year and all managed to raise enough funds to pay for the cost of the camp accommodation for the participants. This practise continues to ensure the sustainability of the camp. In addition to this Brcko District government gave 3500KM to cover transport between Brcko and Savudrija, as well as some material and coordination costs.

Pre-camp training:
In response to evaluation from the 2001 camp it was decided that international and local volunteers would meet with each other, Svitac staff and camp participants in Brcko before the beginning of the summer project in order to work on ideas and activities for the camp. This was a great success allowing volunteers to 'have a trial run with planning and get a sense of our own dynamic' (volunteer). It also allowed international volunteers to gain a greater understanding of Brcko and the social and political climate the participants in the camp would be coming from. This is to be continued in 2005.

Camp Activities:
The camp consisted of a Children’s camp and a Music & drama camp. Participants of Children’s camp were from 8 to 11 years old and in music & drama camp were from 12 to 15 years old and participants were well occupied. Volunteers reported that team building, creative and problem-solving games worked particularly well. Local volunteers coordinated a quiz and a talent show, and these activities were among the most popular for the children.

'I felt that almost all the activities and the combination of activities broke down barriers and built confidence.' (Volunteer)

The camp was structured with several parts to the day in order to best make use of the participants time and to achieve a balance between organised activities and free social time. There were joint activities in the morning, during which participants and volunteers could give feed back about previous day and choose the activity they had enjoyed the most. This was very helpful because volunteers could find out how much participants liked their ideas and activities and improve them for future activities. After this participants and volunteers were split in the two groups and did separate activities until lunch time. After lunch everybody joined together for an activity (this was different everyday and different volunteers were responsible for the organisation). There was then the option of going to the beach or attending different activities organised by ‘Veli Joza’ campsite coordinators, such as football, volleyball or table-tennis. Following this participants and volunteers had leisure time, during which they could refresh themselves, listen to music, play games, socialise with other groups in ‘Veli Joze’ and prepare a performance for the evening. After dinner each evening every group at ‘Veli Joze’ did a performance representing their country and organisation that they belonged to (e.g. Bosnia and Svitac). This usually lasted around two or two and half hours and was a great way for the participants to learn about the different countries present. At the end of the night there was a disco for everybody, which our participants enjoyed as they could spend more time with new friends that they had met during the day. On the last evening of the summer camp the children and youth who were attending Children’s and Music & drama camp as well as the volunteers organised a performance to show what they had learnt during the camp. The other groups from ‘Veli Joze’ were invited to see the performance. At the end of the camp an evaluation was completed with participants and volunteers by an independent evaluator, Mark Chadwick.

Problems:
One of the major problems in organising this camp lay in the paperwork beforehand. Due to the internal displacement of large amounts of people, many of the children were not born in Brcko and needed to obtain birth certificate from their place of birth. The next problem was that many of them were so-called 'war children' (children born during the war). This meant many of them had double ID numbers and it took some time to coordinate between the different agencies in Federation BiH and Republic of Srpska. This in part was also due to the late application for documentation by some of the participants parents. In order to avoid this in the future it will be clearly explained that it is obligatory to get these documents one month before the beginning of the camp. On the camp itself there were initially some problems with inclusion of all the participants in activities. However camp coordinators over camp these by developing more inclusive arts activities such as kite making, where the entire group was split into pairs, and making partnerships across initial divisions such as age easier to forge.

Conclusion:
The summer camps project 2004 was a great success, and proved the viability of this project after a break of two years. The inclusion of local volunteers as camp-coordinators worked particularly well and this will be developed in the forthcoming years. The fact that some of these volunteers continued to work with Svitac during the year after the camp highlights how well this project worked. In the future it is hoped that a training program for local volunteers will be initiated during the year in order to provide them with skills necessary for camp coordination and management and thus empower them to run their own activities and take more ownership over projects. The cultural exchange aspect of this camp was slightly different to how it had been in previous years, due to the fewer numbers of international volunteers. However this was still obtained through the international participants in the ‘Veli Joze’ campsite. It is also hoped to bring young people from the RUGaim project in Edinburgh to participate in camp in the future.

Children’s Camp
Music and Drama Camp
Future - 2005

For 2005 Svitac is again planning two camps: a children’s camp and music & drama camp. In each camp there will be 15 children and young people (30 in total), 3 youth volunteers from Brcko (6 in total), 2 older and experienced volunteers (4 in total), and 4 international volunteers (7 in total). These participants will be Svitac’s and House of Frienship’s members but it is hoped that new young people will attend these camps and thus become in more projects in the future. 6 young local volunteers will be involved in this, ideally with a 50/50 gender ratio. These will be chosen through an application process and the coordinators of the project will choose 6 people from these applications. They will work together with coordinators and other older and experienced volunteers during preparation of the activities and after the camp will attend a tri-annual training course for volunteers in order to provide them with organisational and management skills. This will then enable them to take a much greater role in the organisation and coordination of projects and the summer camp in 2006. As a result of evaluations completed by among participants, volunteers and coordinators it was decided that ‘Veli Joze’ campsite is the best place that Svitac has held is Summer Camp and as a result the location for the Summer Camps 2005 will not change. As with the previous camps, the summer camp 2005 will be coordinated by Gordana Varcakovic.

Other Project activities: