Every month, the Hastor Foundation scholarship holders have an exceptionally responsibility-filled and special, maybe even the most special task and that is to volunteer with young scholarship holders who are yet to become good people with a built sense for helping others. That task is not easy at all, and our volunteers prepare meetings each month that will be fun and useful, and will prepare our young scholarship holders for everything that awaits in the future. The goal of our
rubric “Small Stories of Great Volunteers” is to bring inspiring, creative, and motivating stories from our volunteering activities in the field, and this month, we bring you a story of a volunteer group whose mentors are Jasmina Halilović, Ali Imran Alić, Amina Ćibo and Nermina Ćukas. This valuable group consists of 14 scholarship students of the Hastor Foundation who attend the Konjic High School and carry out their volunteer activities with mentors in Konjic.
One of this month’s topics that this group of mentors covered with their students is “Online communication – a brake in implementation of the “face to
face” communication. Yes or no?”.
Social media and technology have completely changed the way people communicate, and we dare to say that it also changed the way people live. Over the last ten years, new social networks emerged, some have completely vanished, and it seems that the future will be very interesting as well. What is happening right now is that new platforms suppress the spoken word and emphasize the different means of communication. Because this topic is very relevant nowadays, When preparing the workshops for this meeting, the mentors paid special attention to the topic itself and the methods through which the students will be able to acquire all the necessary knowledge. Students before the start volunteer meeting had the task of talking to the oldest members their families about how they communicated and to what extent
way of experiencing today’s trends in order to meet could draw a parallel between communication today and before 50 years.
At the beginning of the meeting, the mentors presented the students with the development of communication through history. Then they recorded the evolution of the
communication process together on the board. After that, they showed the characteristics of online and “face-to-face” communication in more detail, also through a presentation. The mentors decided to talk with the students about whether modern communication alienates people and if people prefer to talk over the phone or in person, and a small workshop was organized for them. The workshops are one of the means of work students like the most, which makes the mentors glad because of their engagement and interest. During the workshop every student had to write down in a table what they think are the advantages and disadvantages of technology becoming part of communication, after which they had a discussion on what they wrote. The mentors also included the task the students got in advance in the discussion.
After the workshop, they watched videos about different aspects of communication and while watching them, they used the new information to fill out their tables with
advantages and disadvantages of both means of communication. At the end of the meeting, the present mentors and students came to a conclusion that “face-to-face” communication is more favorable to them, but that online communication does not prevent “face-toface” communication from happening.
Jasmina and her volunteer group emphasize the importance of a fulfilling and purposeful volunteer work and they are sending an example to younger people.
When it comes to volunteer work, we think that positivity, compassion, open mind and readiness to engage socially wherever it is needed, are the key things that a person can develop on a personal level as well. Very often, volunteer work gives us a chance to change people’s lives in some way, including our own, and it brings us pleasure because we play a role in someone else’s life. Volunteer work is a way of giving back to our community along with developing important social skills. Through volunteering for the Hastor Foundation we realized that the advantages of volunteer work are much greater than anything else we give up in order to realize the planned volunteering, says mentor Jasmina Halilović.
Actress Audrey Hepburn once said, “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others”, and with their monthly volunteer work, our scholarship holders show us that they are the ones who live by that quote. This volunteer group showed how important it is to talk about our reality and everything that surrounds us, and how important it is to, through the hours of volunteering for the Hastor Foundation, explore our position in comparison to the numerous changes around us. This story proves that young people are ready to show interest in the world they live in and recognize the constant changes in that world, and because of that, we believe it is especially useful and inspiring to young people. We use this opportunity to thank the Youth Council of the City of Konjic and the Andalus Association
Prepared by: Aleksandra Đukić
