Two school volunteer clubs, one Sisak Gymnasium and the other Ivan Trnski High School from Hrvatska Kostajnica, despite the newly created situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, have continued their work!
With the support of the Local Democracy Agency Sisak through the project “Follow My Steps – Youth for a Sustainable Community”, in February 2020, two school volunteer clubs opened their doors. School volunteer clubs are staffed by school representatives and students, and club activities are conducted in accordance with the Global Sustainable Development Goals.
The enthusiasm of the club members did not falter, nor did the lifestyle change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and temporarily shifted their meetings and activities to the online world.
The volunteer club of the Sisak Gymnasium “VoGSi” at its regular weekly meetings also takes care of the mental health of its members. In order to raise their spirits, volunteer students were tasked with writing on an online board why they feel good about their new situation and what they are grateful for. The goal was to awaken awareness that not everything should be viewed negatively. The volunteer students emphasized that they are very happy that the work of the volunteer club has continued and that they will surely acquire some new useful skills through such work.
Photo 1: Online club meeting, Gymnasium Sisak – Positive messages
They also carried out an activity that aimed to get to know each other and bring the club closer together. They created posters whose role was to present themselves as best they could in the time before and during the pandemic, thereby revealing common interests.
Photo 2: Online meeting, Gymnasium Sisak – Getting know each other
In addition, students have prepared and conducted the first online peer workshop called “Better Tomorrow” promoting the 4th Global Sustainable Development Goal – Quality Education.
Photo 3: Gymnasium Sisak – Workshop “Better tomorrow”
Ivan Trnski High School Volunteer Club “With Heart to Others”, similar to friends from Sisak, actively communicates with its members so that they can overcome the time of isolation as painlessly as possible and remain active in their community. Thus, two volunteer students developed a questionnaire for their club’s volunteers, whose questions were mostly related to the new situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Volunteer Questionnaire is linked to the 3rd Global Sustainable Development Goal – Good health and well-being for people of all generations, through which students highlight their views on emerging pandemic situations. In the survey, they expressed their opinion on online teaching and how it affects their health, compliance with all rules and regulations related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the like.
In addition, students were tasked with creating a “positive poster” to continue to spread the positive atmosphere among others. From the poster, a virtual exhibition called “Think Positive, Stay Negative” was made and was published on the school’s Internet and Facebook pages, as well as in virtual classrooms and classrooms, and can be viewed here.
Photo 4: Virtual Exibition, Hrvatska Kostajnica – Positive posters
The Club Volunteers this year marked Earth Day in a new, virtual way. In their surroundings, they found beautiful scenes of nature for them or did their best to clean up the part of nature that surrounds them. They recorded everything with their cameras or cell phones. This action is linked to the 15th Global Sustainable Development Goal – Life On Land. As a result of the action, a photo exhibition “Earth Day in the Corona Age” was created, which you can see here.
Photo 5: Volunteer action, Hrvatska Kostajnica – Cleaning the environment
Both school volunteer clubs continue to be active in planning new activities that help students in the school, the community in which they live, but also through which they develop new knowledge and skills.
With the support of the Local Democracy Agency of Sisak, volunteer clubs were provided with ongoing support in advising on how to hold and organize meetings, as well as on the possibilities of using a specific methodology and online platforms.
The project “Follow My Steps! – Youth for a Sustainable Community” is Co-financed by the Office for NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia through the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Program. The leader of the project is the Local Democracy Agency Sisak, and the partners are Sisak Gymnasium High School, High School Ivan Trnski Hrvatska Kostajnica and Sisak-Moslavina County. The aim of the project is to contribute to the promotion of partnership between civil society organizations and educational institutions in the field of volunteerism, which contributes to social and economic cohesion and sustainable development in the Sisak – Moslavina County.
Programme is co-financed by the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.
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The views expressed in this text are the sole responsibility of the Local Democracy Agency Sisak and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Govermnent Office for Cooperation with NGOs.
