The girls and young men, who are members of the Budi Muško club Mostar, have been very active during the last days of the seventh month, despite the great heat. They participated in the Summer Youth Program; which aimed to give young people the opportunity to learn in a fun and participatory way, but also to use the acquired knowledge immediately in practice.
In the first week of summer program, young men and women were part of the workshop “How do I support my friends?”. As part of this workshop, they discussed what their friendship was for them, when they talked to their friends for the last time and how they deal with life situations when their friends need help and support. Through the role play, they had the opportunity to see different approaches to solving the problems their friends encounter in their daily lives. At the end of the workshop, they came to conclusions about the role of friends in their lives, the importance of friends, the choice and finding of friends, and how they recognize when someone is a good friend and what characteristics they see with themselves as a friend.
During the second week, summer program participants learned what youth campaigns are, which are integral parts of a campaign, and what steps are needed to make a campaign successful. At the beginning, through brainstorming activity, they created their own campaign definition that was used below the workshop. Through the series of games, they stimulated their brains to move on with the campaigning of the International Friendship Day marking 30 July.
The last week was full of activities. The first participants on Monday launched a smaller campaign on the streets of the city on the occasion of the International Friendship Day. It is important to note that this campaign is the fruit of summer program participants’ work and presents their knowledge gained in action. As part of the campaign, they stopped the passers-by and asked them to write a message on a piece of paper what was a friendship for them and what would they tell to one of their friends. The whole campaign is filmed and after the summer program will be prepared promotional videos that will show what all these young people have achieved during their 20 days of active engagement in learning and gaining practical knowledge.
After that, there was a reward for active work and effort in the form of one-day departure to the pool in Blagaj.
The last activity of the Summer Youth Program was held on Thursday 2.8. The girls and young men were their practical knowledge gained during the previous activities, divided into a focus group where they talked about creating a new regional campaign for the Budi Muško Club.
In the end, all participants are awarded certificates for a successfully completed summer program.
Elma Čomor and Amra Ćatić, members of the Budi Muško Club, told us about their summer youth program experience, and we talked about their participation in BMK workshops, actions and how they found out about this club:
Elma Čomor: For BMK I found out in November when Tina and Ruža held a workshop in the American Corner. I went to one meeting and i liked everything, from the topics we talked about, the nice people and the relaxed talk to some of the games we played . I continued to come to meetings and soon i met a lot of loving people and i just fit in. Now I still love it because I know everything and it is not uncomfortable for me to express my opinion and to make the meetings much more fun.In the meantime I became much more relaxed, it is no longer unpleasant to talk to many people, I liberated myself and I think it is easier for me to approach people in street actions, but I also learned a lot about healthy habits BMK promotes and leadership. I am glad to be a part of BMK because, above all, it provides a healthy alternative for young people, a good company and so to say “takes them away from the streets” where they don’t have very good role models. In this summer program, first of all, I am glad that we all enjoyed and socialized, but I am very pleased that i learned a lot about compassion, friendship and mental health, and I realized that I can really help people who do not have much confidence and the ones to whom is hard to deal with society, and there’s tons of people like that today.
Amra Ćatić: I first heard about BMK from my classmates who were then members of BMK so I was interested because it provided the opportunity to meet new people, exchange experiences … My colleagues also talked about the actions being held but also about traveling with young people from another cities. After a presentation presented by BMK members at my school, I decided to become a member of the same. Although there were some negative comments circulating in my school, after I went to the first meeting, I realized that none of them was true. Of course it has had a positive impact on me. First of all, I became more responsible and more engaged. I also met new people and made the new friendships that I am very pleased with.
Presence at the meetings made it possible for me to be more free and safer to give my opinion on subjects of which perhaps I would never talk about, and also about the ones most common in our present. I feel the change in a way of communication and conversation with peers and professors. I believe that BMK fulfills its basic goal which is the promotion of healthier lifestyles. Also in meetings and workshops we talk about topics that are characteristic and quite common in our society, as well as those we would never talk about at school. BMK fulfills its goal in the way of keeping street actions that many young people respond to and thus achieving that people find out about BMK, and for all that BMK promotes. We talked about the importance of friendship on the summer program, and we also worked on a street action for the International Friendship Day where young people wrote their messages to their friends, no matter where they lived. We also talked about the campaign, what the campaign represents for us and would we like to be a member of it. Very nice experience and educational conversations in every way.