Education Bosnia and Herzegovina Project #10173

Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

by Bosana Foundation

Project Report | Mar 26, 2020
Quarterly Report January -March 2020

By Adi Salcinovic | Program Coordinator

3D mask making against COVID-19

BOSANA FOUNDATION

After School Program Report

January - March 2020

Number of volunteer instructors:19

Average number of students:77

Number of workshops held: 3 times a week for three hours

Type of classes held:

Introductions to Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, English, German, Turkish, Agro and Eco Mathematics and extracurricular activities such as programming and robotics, handcrafts and calligraphy

Additional.classes
The end of 2019 we celebrated by preparing presents and organising a party as a reward for all the Aftershool program beneficiaries who attended our classes. In January, during winter break, we organised multiple educational and creative workshops for the beneficiaries. Already in february, we were back to work with three additional classes a week, with beneficiaries having gone back to schools and college. One student we would like to point out for trying especialy hard is Sedina, an eight grader who made big progress and with the help of our volunteers managed to fix her grade from a barely passing one to an A. Besides that, she is a very smart and creative young girl that has now made it her goal to help as many of her friends in the orphanage with their school work and grades. Another student who improved his grades a lot is Hamid, a high school senior who took our classes to obtain better grades. His grades are now excellent and with the help of our volunteers we talked him into applying for college. He plans to enroll into a software engineering college because he loves what we do at our IT workshops. Hamid had problems with math and programming. He lacked the ability of logical thinking and coming to conclusions, instead he was more of a learner by heart. Through attending our classes two times a week Hamid managed to build a skill of thinking logically and using it to solve mathematical or programming tasks our programmes gave him. Another bright example of this project is a student of polytechnic college who attends math classes two times a week, but also helps others with any IT related classes they have. During three months, up until march, our classe were attended by 77 students, divided in different groups by age and by subjects that they needed help in.

In the second week of March, the visits to the orphanage were forbidden because of an outbreak of COVID-19, but we decided to hold online classes for those who really need help with studying. We are currently in the process of organising it. This program is our way to help our beneficiaires, to help them not only study and to educate them but also show their creativity and build skills essential for their future lives, for their survival. We want them to be able to succeed just as well as anyone else despite their rough start and unfortunate circumstances.

Programming and robotics courses, creative workshops, calligraphy

In january 2020 another great thing that happened as part of the after school program is that the orphanage management gave us a room of roughly 35 square metres. Now, instead of working in common areas or having children come to the offices of local nonprofit - INPUT, we use this room for any courses, workshops or classes that we organise. All the older children gladly joined our volunteers in dusting, vacuuming, cleaning and painting the room to get it ready for our Afterschool program.

The beneficiaries were all excited to have a space where they can learn interesting things, play, be creative and build essential skills. This space is now called MakerSpace lab. There, we organise regular robotics courses, where beneficiaries can work with our robots and study them, the way they work, the way that they are made and how they can be used. Then, we programm the robots, teaching them also programming languages such as scratch, python, c++, arduino, makeblock,... they are divided into two groups. The younger ones, aged 7 to 11 work with smaller robots and learn the basics of controlling them using makeblocks block codes. They use robots like mBot, Cozmo, Codyrocky,.. Older ones work with microcontrollers, arduino and microbit. In those classes they learn how to make functional systems such as working smart doors. One of the first such courses was IoT (Internet of Things) where we taught them how to make traffic light with the help of arduino. Next, they used a microbit to make a pedometer, step counter. Children love these classes as they are a chance to learn something new.

Besides programming and robotics another interesting course is a calligraphy workshop. Here, the beneficiaries learn not only to write but also how to make calligraphy paper. It is a workshop popular not only with kids but also their caretakers.

Now, something that we are most proud of in the light of recent events, is that we have two volunteers from the orphanage helping us with 3D printing masks essential for health workers, Edin and Sedin, both students who learnt 3D printing in our Afterschool program. The masks are made to be donated to the hospital in Zenica.

Parties, hangouts, and holiday recitals

As we already said, the end of 2019 was celebrated with a new year's party, 30.12. where we all had fun with much laughter, dance and singing. Everyone got their presents, and a young volunteer agreed to sing and play on a piano. Besides this one, we organised a few activities for the older children, so they got to attend two youth conferences and educational workshops. Also as always we organised an Independence day party on March 1st where children also performed themselves. Another party we organised was to celebrate Women's day on March 8th and make handmade gifts for the caretakers.

Plans for the next quarter:

if the situation with COVIC-19 persists, we will continue to organize online learning for our ,
developing and designing projects for IoT,
small programming school for kids 7-11,
“Sam svoj majstor”- a course for older beneficiaries, where they can learn how to fix computers and other equipment,
organising peer to peer education,
educating young people on how to write and lead a project,
making an informal group with children in the orphanage and applying to OB projects,
training regarding web programing,
a sewing course.

Group homework sessions

Computer programing

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Dec 26, 2019
Quarterly Report October - December 2019

By Adi Salcinovic | Program Coordinator

Celebrating National Day at Afterschool program

BOSANA FOUNDATION

After School Program Report

October - December 2019

Number of volunteer instructors:19

Average number of students:72

Number of workshops held:3 times a week for three hours

Types of classes held:

Introduction to mathematics, physics, chemistry English, German, agro and eco mathematics and extracurricular activities such as programming and robotics, handicrafts.

Supplementary classes

During this quarter, school activities have reached their peak, with both countless exams/tests and a large quantity of new lessons to conquer. Naturally, this caused our lessons to have incredibly high attendance level, so we had to split them into two sections per week, each being three-hour long. School aged children had problems with maths, IT, English and German language, Physics and so on, so we organised separate lessons for all school subjects they found hard, and lessons in programming (QBasic, C++, HTML, algorithms…). We found that these classes were very successful, with students attending regularly and their grades getting much better. During this timeframe, we had 72 regular students, with 48 of them needing help with mathematics, IT and physics. Out of 48 of them, 30 are elementary school students, and 16 go to highschool. The greatest interest and need for math and programming were shown by Marija and Sedin, who are finishing high school and preparing for college. Marija wants to study electrical engineering and Sedin is interested in architecture. Marija has been a regular at the “After school project” since she was in eight grade. This year she had troubles with functions, derivatives and integrals, but already in December, she managed to get an A in her exam. She also had problems with programming, but our volunteers helped her with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sedin has problems with math and technical drawings. Through hard work from October to December he managed to fix his grades. Working with a volunteer who is an Architecture student for 3 hours every week, he also learned how to do technical drawings. He showed a lot of enthusiasm, and not only got good grades but also a praise from his teacher (see below).

Summary of the past three months is represented in 72 students with improved grades and knowledge. They have thanked us multiple times for everything we do in “After school program”, our time and our help. Our main wish is to help these children and young people in studying, getting good grades, finishing high school and enrolling in college.

Programming and robotics workshops and educational and creative events
Durign this quarter, beneficiaries took part in a three-hour long activities and events related to programming and robotics every Saturday. During those events they learned about programming microcontrollers such as Arduino and MicroBit. About 15 students ranging from 7th grade to highschool worked hard for three months and managed to adopt basic programming principles, learn how to construct and combine microcontrollers and modules. By the end of December, they had successfully made a smart home project. High school students attended a course on Web design, where they learned the basics about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery, and another course that taught programming in Python. Both courses had 15 attendees. In January, we plan on making a website where our students can show everything they have learned.

Creative workshops were very interesting, with about 35 beneficiaries taking part in them. They played piano, drew on foil, and made their own decoupage. The main aim of these events was socialising children in a fun and relaxed environment and teaching them new decorating techniques simultaneously.

Parties, Gatherings and Holiday Shows

“After school program” is not only educational. It was also conducted with a purpose of socialising young people in a controlled environment. During these three months, we organised many appropriate events that promoted socialisation. In October and November there were 4 karaoke shows where there was plenty of opportunities to sing (most of the music was rapping), and hang out. There were about 30-40 kids at every show. In November we visited the American corner, giving children a chance to understand how it works and what it does. On the National day in November, we organised an all day event where kids presented their own literary works about their country and were given gifts. In the second part of the program, they had a chance to present their art works. Besides all that, we had 6 workshops about healthy lifestyle for school aged children, where they had a chance to talk to a doctor and learn about their body. Now, 28.12.2019.we are having our traditional pre-New Year social gathering, so all our forces are focused on organising that. We are preparing gifts and a rich activity-filled program, with about 20 volunteers and a music band Aritmija making a holiday atmosphere.

Plans

For for upcoming quarter, we plan to continue with instructional teaching and work with children who need help, and also organize as many extracurricular activities as possible to help them express creativity, learn new things and give them opportunities for a better life. Since January is a winter break, we plan to involve older children in projects and workshops and provide them with a way to earn some allowance. We will continue to work to educate young people and help them learn more about programming. Our plan is to help unemployed young people by giving them the opportunity to retrain and start programming and robotics. One way to manage this is to organize classes by developing confidence and teaching business planning and planning projects so that they can do their own. We want to help affirm and inspire young people to become entrepreneurs and start their own small businesses. The next thing in our plan are educational seminars on self-sustainability, how to teach young people how to become independent and lead their own lives.

Achievements in these months:

Leisure that is used productively through creative and IT workshops
Beneficiaries showed great interest and talent
Boys and girls showed great interest in IT
Children are ready to perform the practical skills they have gained at the workshops

Plans for the future month:
Instructional lessons, following the success of the children in school an assisting them
Foreign programming and language learning
Children acquiring the skills to be self-sufficient
Inclusion of children and young people in educational project writing workshops and practical demonstration for starting independent businesses
Educational and strengthening the children's home children
Programing and robotics

involving children and young people attending programming workshops at Hackaton competitions.

Programming at Afterschool Program

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Oct 3, 2019
Quarterly Report June - September 2019

By Adi Salcinovic | Program Coordinator

Robotics classes as part of Afterschool program

BOSANA FOUNDATION

After School Program Report

June – September 2019

Number of volunteer instructors:17

Average number of students:70

Number of workshops held:4 times a week for three hours

Type of classes held: Intro to Math, English, German, Physics, chemistry, Agro & Eco math and extracarricular activities like a handicrafts, robotics and programing, jewlery making.

Due to numerous requests to do an overview of our Afterschool program, this report is more focused on looking back at our 10 years - a big milestone!

Looking back at our achievements

Afterschool program has been implemented since 2009 at the Zenica Orphanage and one of its goals is to help the kids from orphanage, our beneficiaries, with school and grades to ease their life by engaging them in various social activities. 50 to 70 beneficiaries participate in this program monthly where they attend educational workshop. The workshop is led by volunteers, some who are also Bosana scholarship recipients, who help beneficiaries with homework and studying. The educators are truly engaged which results in beneficiaries’ improvement in school. The greatest proof for our effort comes when at the end of school year there are no beneficiaries failing at any of the subjects (which was very frequent before our program).

It is not only about teaching and helping beneficiaries with their homework; it is also about having fun too. Many prominent professors and famous people come to visit the beneficiaries at the orphanage and help them as they knew. Beneficiaries had a chance to celebrate holidays, have parties, go to the cinema, theatre, city’s library, etc.

The program’s biggest success is when the beneficiaries feel they have overcome difficulties and have achieved something new. Adis, who was 10 when he first attended extra lessons from Math and English, is now 20 years old and he studies architecture at the International University of Sarajevo. He attended almost every lesson of the program, and he overcame many difficulties with his studies. However, his persistence paid off and he received a scholarship and is now a successful student.

It is worth mentioning also that this program started with one educator and now there are up to 20 educators who are willing to help whenever they are invited.

Another student we are particularly proud off and would like to mention is Edin D. who is a student of engineering in Zenica. Edin started attending the program in 2009 and had difficulties with math and physics. He said that this program helped him in making a decision about what university to attend. He chose to study engineering because he enjoyed the way teachers/volunteers explained the lessons. It was like a game, he said.

The program is successful due to hardworking and enthusiastic teachers/volunteers and their lovely students willing to attend the lessons after their regular lessons at school. The program itself has 30 hours of work monthly, what is about 360 hours per year and more than 3 600 for the past ten years. There are 7 successful students and 2 of them are seniors. Yet another successful year!

Our Workshops in programing and robotics, creative workshops

For the past ten years of the Afterschool program, beneficiariess attended various creative workshops (decoupage, decorating old items, jewelry making, silk and foil drawing) which were led by professional educators. Some beneficiaries have also exhibited their items at a couple of fairs. Creative workshops were mostly attended by girls from 5^th grade onwards. The handicrafts they made looked amateur at first, but day by day the girls progressed and their work became more and more beautiful and professional. There are two girls still living at the orphanage making handicrafts and that’s how they earn pocket money.

Through educational workshops we have also involved about 50 beneficiaries in robotics and programming. 10 girls and 10 boys attended lessons regularly for a year. Beneficiariess were thrilled when they saw robots. They immediately started programming in the applications. They learned web programming (html, css, bootstrap, java script, query) Out of 20 students who attended this workshop, all of them have successfully completed but 5 of them are actively engaged in programming. One guy who graduated from high school has left the orphanage and now works at a programming company in Zenica. It all started in our Afterschool program.

Parties, Gatherings and Holiday Shows

While talking to the beneficiaries who attended different workshops they told us how important all these workshops were for them. Educators were many times their best friends who helped them with some private problems all well. They helped them to become better people and more socially active.Beneficiaries had a chance to travel, to have parties, to meet some famous musicians like Armin Muzaferija, Balkanerosi, etc. Each year, we celebrate holidays and mark various important events just to bring a smile to their face and to make their life better.
During Ramadan we prepare a religious dinner called iftar where all beneficiaries enjoy the meal together. Statehood Day and Independence Day are also celebrated by organizing different competitions, quizzes about our country. They also attend all important public and administrative institutions so they could do everything by themselves in the future. They went to the theatre where they got a chance to see how plays were made.

Achievements in these months:

Leisure that is used productively through creative and IT workshops
Beneficiaries and young people showed great interest and talent
Beneficiaries’ desire to learn and achieve better results in school
A primary school pupil successfully passes the entrance examination for enrolment in high school
Boys and girls showed great interest in IT
Beneficiaries are ready to perform the practical skills they have gained at the workshops

Plans for the future month:

Instructional lessons, following the success of the beneficiaries in school an assisting them
Foreign programming and language learning
Beneficiaries acquiring the skills to be self-sufficient
Inclusion of beneficiaries and young people in educational project writing workshops and practical demonstration for starting independent businesses
Educational and strengthening the beneficiaries’ home beneficiaries
Programming and robotics

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