Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

BOSANA FOUNDATION
After School Program Report
Q3 Quarterly Report 2022

Bosana Foundation currently supports three after school programs in three different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After School Program - Zenica

After school program in Zenica was our pilot program, and it has proven to be very successful. On average there are about seven volunteers, and this program supports more than 50 kids. In this past quarter, in-person classes were organized once  a week for two hours, and virtually three times a week for 90 minutes. 

Children attending grades 1-5 had activities aimed to help them get ready for the new school year.  Volunteers realized that Math and Physics are the biggest obstacles in the new year, so they worked with elementary and high school kids in smaller groups.

Children and youth from the orphanage had a lot of free time during the summer vacation, and they were happy to spend time in our program, socializing and attending educational and entertaining workshops. On weekends, we organized board games, playing monopoly, chess, cards, and dominoes. They had the opportunity to enjoy the STEM camp in an open area equipped with an artificial rock wall, various obstacles for recreational sports activities, as well as a trampoline and mini zipline.

On the International Youth Day, we organized a panel discussion on the topic of education and the departure of young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Young people aged 15 to 18 joined us to celebrate this important day for youth. A few of the children from the orphanage participated in the discussion and expressed their opinion on the topic.

In September, when school started, focus was more on school activities, but children had the opportunity to participate in the celebration of the European Coding Week and Meet and code events, where they showed great interest, as well as familiarity with the subject, since they learned a lot through IT and STEM workshops within the framework of the After-school program.

After School Program – Tuzla

There are on average five to eight volunteers, including Bosana's scholarship recipients,  who are generally working with about fifty children. Activities are scheduled twice to three times a week, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, in order to accommodate different schedules. In June and July, a lot of kids spent their school break with relatives, so classes were scheduled only on Sundays; however, in September the groups went back to their regular schedule.

Volunteers help with homework, Math practice tests, and other subjects that show the need for support. Volunteers also make a point of finding time to play with children, in order to make some time for fun. It was noticed that children are having a hard time going back to regular schedules after the lockdowns so it is important to help with adjustments.

This is the time of summer break and they need to have fun before the new school year begins. Additional focus was put on sport, games, creative classes and fun events. In September our volunteers held creative workshops and helped with different school subjects.

After School Program - Sarajevo.

Our amazing volunteers are actively working on helping children from orphanage “Bjelave” prepare for their Math and language classes. They have also organized sport activities in order to keep children active and healthy. In addition to these standard workshops, children were able to attend cooking, pottery, and art workshops.

In August, since it was a school break, children were able to attend various educational camps. Some of the activities were tours of the old towns, museum visits, farm visits and horse riding lessons, which were very popular with the kids.

An Association for Children and Youth in BiH "IUVENTUS" in cooperation with the Center for Personal and Professional Development, the Islamic Community in Sarajevo, and the Wamy Foundation organized a seminar for young members and volunteers of the Association.

Topics covered at the seminar were:

- "How to be successful?"

- "Building a business career - personal business positioning, fundamentals of practical preparation and project writing.

The certificates of participation were awarded to all attendees at the end of the seminar.