Ongoing AfterSchool Tutoring for 70 orphans in BIH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

After School Program Quarterly Report

October  – December 2013

Number of volunteer instructors: 9 

 Average number of students: 50 

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

Type of classes held: Intro to Math, English, German, Bosnian language, physics, chemistry, Economics, computer science, guitar and piano lessons, Turkish language classes.   

Program Summary:  

During this reporting period, the instructions were geared towards getting students into the school mode after the long summer break. The attendance usually during this quarter is less than in other quarters because the school is only starting; however, this year our program started with many more students than usual because they really enjoyed themselves over the summer with our Aftershool program that they just continued coming without interrruption. 

Program Activities in this quarter:

 Since the month of May is full of final exams, the children at the Zenica orphanage expressed interest and need for the instructors to come more often than usual and to stay longer. The instructors agreed and made a committment to help them succeed during the exam period. 

Towards the end of the guarter, as it is the time of exams and the end of first semester, our volunteers work extra hours to help children prepare for the exams.  This is the period when students really come on time, show greater than normal interest and come with specific problems that they have to prepare for the exams. 

One of the best stuents of our Afterschool Program on his own initiative signed up for 4th year in High school which will allow him to be able to go to college. Before, he was attending a three year high school after which he can only pursue trade work.  However, he insisted to continue one more year so he can attend college.  We will do our best to help him realize this dream. 

Noticable Improvements:

Most importantly, childrens' behavior keeps improving and that is visible not only to our volunteers of the Afterschool Program but also to the staff working at the orphanage.  Childrens' arrival on time, increasing numbers of attendance, not wanting to leave for dinner but rather wanting to stay in the classroom, all show how much the children appreciate this program, enjoy it and their grades show that its also effective on their schooling.  We achieved this by including more fun activities and rewards for those that come and have good behavior.

A number of students have improved their grades from Ds to Bs.  Once they saw their grades get better, this also increased their involvement in the program and their behavior, including attendance. We have one student in 7th grade who not only improved her English but also her math grades.  She was full of excuse before but now she comes regularly to the afterschool program. 

Children attending special needs school have also received attantion from our volunteers, spending hours working with them as well, including them in almost all of our classes.  Attached in the report, you can see a painting that one of the students with special needs attending 8th grade made during our «Creative class» with the help of one of our volunteers.    

We also continue to work with children who have a problem with socialization bringing more extracurricular activities like going to a theatre, events, walks, etc to expand their social outreach and interests. In December, the volunteers and the Program Coordinator, organized our 4th holiday concert named «Spectacle» where students sang, danced and enjoyed various sweets, treats and each others company. 

In addition to this, our volunteers spend a lot of time after the class is finished talking with the children, hanging out with them and many times not only serving as «Teachers» but also their friends and social workers helping them address some of the current life problems.  Very often, even after the classes are over, the children do not want to go to dinner but rather stay and talk with the volunteers who now have become integral part of their lives. 

CHALLENGES:

There are no serious challenges to report as students are showing great progress in school, interest in extracurricular activities and their behavior has drastically improved.