Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Afterschool Program Report

Number of volunteer instructors:7

Average number of students:60

Number of workshops held:once a week in person for two hours and three times a week for 90 minutes online

Type of classes held:

Introduction to mathematics, physics, chemistry, english and extracurricular activities, such as creative robotics and programming workshops.

Classes outcomes

During the past quarter, which also includes summer vacation, we had a very limited number of instructional classes because all program beneficiaries successfully completed their classed and wanted a much deserved break. At the beginning of August, the program helped prepare four high school students for their college entrance exam in mathematics and physics. Classes were held every day and after a month of hard work two of them successfully passed the exams and were enrolled in college.

One very nice thing about Afterschool program is that this September, the tutors were finally able to complete at least half of the classes in person while the other half they completed online. This is huge because our instructors were not able to enter orphanage for the past year and a half due to Covid-19 strict regulations that the orphange as a public institution had to uphold.

As in previous quarters, we can visibly see the sucess of our Afterschool program by the grades that our beneficiaries receive. Sedin who is now a college student, has earned a lot of success thanks to our Afterschool program. He struggled mostly with math but thanks to our instructors and his willingness to learn, Sedin has mastered the basic foundations of mathematics and now he is able to attend college.

Education in the field of information technology, robotics and programming

This past we held online and in person workshops in the field of STEM, as well as the basics of informatics and bookkeeping. We also held classes focused on basic computer competencies needed for administrative work. Beneficiaries had the opportunity to learn basics in MS Excel by making tables, calculations, generating reports and graphical representations. Excellent MS Excel skills are one of the main conditions for employment and professional advancement, and we hope that this type of education was of great importance for our beneficiaries who are finishing high school. Second focus was in the field of information technology, STEM and programming, which was completed online through Zoom platform and Google Classroom. During the summer, a large number of beneficiaries were very interested in this type of education. Due to the inability for all participants to follow the workshops online from few available laptops, we used apps for programming basics that beneficiaries could also work on cell phones (programs like: grasshopper.app and codetribe, all very interesting applications for learning programming for children and young people). About 60 beneficiaries followed and learned programming with our educators through the mentioned applications.

Parties, hangouts and performances

During the summer holiday, program beneficiaries were limited in movement so they went through some very stressful period as they could not see their friends or family members. In June, we managed to take the program participants outside to an amusement park, in the open air and we organized a party on the topic of harmfulness of plastic. Participants were very depressed that they could not go out and play, so in August a little vacation from home was well received.

Plans for the coming months:

- Creative canvas painting workshops

- Workshops in programming and robotics

- Web programming for older students

- Orientation workshops to help beneficiaries make better decisions about life after orphanage