School volunteer clubs in Sisak, Croatia

A good practice brought by ALDA's Operational Partner LDA Sisak.

Despite the difficult situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, two Croatian high school volunteer clubs have opened and are continuing their work in creative and sensitive ways!

With the support of ALDA's Operational Partner Local Democracy Agency Sisak, in February 2020, two school volunteer clubs opened their doors in Sisak, Croatia within the project "Follow My Steps – Youth for a Sustainable Community". These are staffed by school representatives and students, and club activities are conducted in accordance with the Global Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.

With the onset of Covid-19, the enthusiasm of the club members did not falter, and they temporarily shifted their meetings and activities to the online world.

The volunteer club of the Sisak Gymnasium "VoGSi" in particular, holds weekly meetings to care for its members' mental health: in order to raise everybody's spirit, volunteer students were tasked with writing on an online board (pictured) 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.

They also carried out an activity that aimed to get to better know each other and bring the club closer together: they each created a poster with the aim to present themselves as best they could in the time before and during the pandemic, thereby revealing common interests.

In addition, the students prepared and conducted their first online peer workshop called "Better Tomorrow", promoting the 4th SDG: Quality Education.

The "With Heart to Others" Ivan Trnski High School Volunteer Club, similarly, keeps actively communicating with its members so that they can overcome the time of isolation as painlessly as possible while also remaining active in their community. 

Thus, two volunteer students developed a questionnaire for their club's participants with questions mostly related to the ongoing emergency situation. This was linked to the 3rd SDG: Good health and well-being for people of all generations, and students were able to highlight their views on the emerging pandemic situation in all aspects of life. In the survey, they especially expressed their opinion on online teaching and how it affects their health, just like the compliance with all rules and regulations related to the Covid-19 outbreak.

In addition, students were tasked with creating a "positive poster" to continue spreading the positive atmosphere among others. A virtual exhibition was then launched with the title "Think Positive, Stay Negative" and published on the school's webpafe and Facebook page, as well as in virtual classrooms and classrooms: it can be explored here.

Last but not least, this year the Club Volunteers marked Earth Day in a new, virtual way: in their surroundings, they identified beautiful nature and did their best to clean up as much they could, while recording everything with their cameras or cell phones. This was linked to the 15th SDG: Life On Land. As a result of the action, a photo exhibition called "Earth Day in the Corona Age" was created: it is available here.

Both school volunteer clubs continue to be active in planning new activities that help students in the their school and community, and through which they develop new knowledge and skills, too.

With the support of the Local Democracy Agency of Sisak, volunteer clubs were provided with ongoing advice on how to hold and organize online meetings, as well as on specific methodologies for virtual engagement on online platforms.

The “Follow My Steps! – Youth for a Sustainable Community” project is co-financed by the Office 
of NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia through the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Program. It is implemented by LDA Sisak in partnership with Sisak – Moslavina County, the Sisak Gymnasium High School and the Ivan Trnski Hrvatska Kostajnica High School.

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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 Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs.