The Guiding Stars program has completed another cycle of its journey. On June 16, 2023, the volunteers of this program held the final activity of the cycle that started in October 2022. The event took place at the Archdiocesan Center for Youth Pastoral Care Ivan Pavao II, for twenty-five young people who had worked diligently and successfully with children. Volunteers spent a total of 1,618 hours volunteering, of which 884 hours were dedicated to self-development workshops. This is a very important component of the program, as volunteers are also mentors to the children, so it is crucial that they are first empowered and educated.

Special contributions to this were made by guest trainers Sanela Šehić, Nerma Daut-Bajramović, and Melvisa Miskić, who, through their workshops, aimed to help the youth develop better skills in self-awareness, recognizing their limits, combating stereotypes and prejudices, as well as improving their ability to work productively with children.

The volunteers actively worked for 734 hours in institutions such as the KJU Educational Center of Sarajevo Canton, Musa Ćazim Ćatić Primary School, Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević Primary School, Hasan Kikić Primary School, Avdo Smailović Primary School, Bjelave Medical High School, the Secondary School for Environment and Wood Design, and the Secondary School of Applied Arts. Volunteers worked with children through educational group workshops, learning clubs, supplementary classes, and one-on-one work with children from the Educational Center.

We spoke with the program coordinator, Kerima Delibašić, about the visible progress of volunteers from last year until now, and what she sees as the greatest charm and advantage of the Guiding Stars program. Kerima, who was herself a volunteer in this program for five years, emphasized that the real charm lies in the fact that she is still part of the children’s lives:
This year has been very special for me because the group of people I worked with were a group of very valuable, young, ambitious, and responsible individuals, which can best be confirmed by the huge number of volunteer hours and workshops created. They continuously strived, as they did in the last cycle, to contribute to the program with their ideas, effort, and dedication. For me, it was a big challenge to create workshops that would remain interesting to such a group, and I think I largely managed to meet their expectations, based on their feedback, but they certainly met mine as well. I hope that we will continue to implement this program with this team, as many more interesting and creative ideas are ready for new children and volunteers.

The volunteers put a lot of creativity into deciding what would be most interesting and educational for the children, and what they could visit during their time together, so that everyone could enjoy themselves while learning something new. During the cycle, volunteers and children had the opportunity to visit the cinema, the National Museum, the City Hall, Pionirska Dolina, and the bowling alley at Zetra.

Volunteer Ajna Maličbegović shared with us what she noticed as beneficial for the children from their work with them, but also what volunteers can gain from this program:
I believe that we benefit twice as much from spending time with the children and that we learn a lot from them, as the children come from different age groups and view the world with so much love, which they also passed on to us. They taught us how to be more tolerant and how to be aware of the needs of others. This program was very useful for me because we talked a lot about communication, which meant a lot to me, as I learned how to communicate assertively both in my work with children and in my personal environment. Also, the workshop on prejudices helped me realize that it’s okay to make mistakes, but what’s important is that we recognize them and work on changing them. I became aware of all my shortcomings, which is very important to me, and I’m trying to work on them.

The volunteers and children have found their guiding stars, now it’s your turn to join and become part of this positive story. The call for new volunteers will soon be open, and starting from October, you can also become someone’s guiding star.

Ajsela Kučinar