Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

Number of volunteer instructors: 8

Average number of students: 20-30

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

Type of classes held: Intro to Math, English, German, Bosnian, physics, chemistry, Agro & Eco math 

Program Activities and Goals:

During this reporting period, our studnets were on their winter break until the end of January; however, our program continued without any disruption so the children had a contructive outlet during the break. Some of the workshops during the break were: jewelry making, story telling and creative imagination writing, making your own computer from scratch, «show how much you know-quiz» (composed in PowerPoint questions in English and German where children were to fill in the words, etc.) and photography workshop. Upon the completion of the winter holidays we held a fun karaoke competition. After the break, we started our general instructions in Math, English language, German language, computer science, chemistry, and physics.

Program Update: We are happy to report that since January 2013, we have four students with special needs and the little ones that do not yet go to school.  With the little kids, we did basic counting until 10 and few math exercises, while with the special needs students, we did exercises how to write small sentences.  For the best handwriting, Indir S. (13) received a chocolate.   

Noticable Improvements:

Our workshops have proven to develop certain skills and interests in the children that they did not have before. This is most evident when they do not want to finish the class, they improve very quickly and pay close attention. Our instructors are also reporting that before they would have to look for children in the orphanage, while now, they are already waiting for them in their desks with pen and paper ready.

The teacher that does jewlery class always brings new and interesting beats from which children can make unusual jewlery and keep what they make. The best student thus far is Irma C. who makes the best jewlery and seems to enjoy it the most.  During our «build your own computer» class, the boys seem to show the most interest and the best student is Fehim C. who has shown drastic improvement in his knoweldge and interest towards computers.  There is a young boy who came to the orphanage three months ago and he said that our afterschool program is his favorite and the best spend time since we arrived to the orphanage. 

We would like to specifically mention Velid H. (16) who regularly attends our program. He was very persistant to learn the synthax in Bosnian language and with the help of our instructors has managed to get a very good grade.  Also, Dijana F. (11) received a B in English language; however, this is very impressive because she did not know how to read until our program. Also Adna H. (15) has mastered geometry with her math instructor. 

CHALLENGES:

 There are no serious challenges to report as studetns are showing great progress in school, interest in extracurricular activities and their behavior has drastically improved.  However, there is a «good problem to have» and this is that students come when they recieve a bad grade or when they have an exam.  As soon as they are helped with their homework or they recieve a good grade on their exam, they stop coming until they again need our help. To keep these students interested, we have included more fun yet still educational activiites that the children would not want to miss.  On the other hand, we have not forced the student to come because sometimes they only cause distraction for those that still need our continued support. 

TESTIMONIES:

Senad, Social Worker in Zenica Orphanage: “I am glad that you found a way to entertain the chlidren in a creative and effective way so they are not wasting their time on the street.“ 

Velid Halilovic (16): “I am very happy that our instructors thought about us even during the winter break, and thank you so much, honestly, i had so much fun and i learned alot.“