January is the month of the beginning of many great things that await us in the year ahead! Like every time before, The Hastor Foundation is entering the new year with new ambitions, plans, and goals, as well as new scholarship recipients who will expand our great family and who will bring a breath of fresh air. Many new friendships will be made. Consequently, on Saturday, January 20th of the current year, a now-traditional meeting was held with the new student scholarship recipients of The Hastor Foundation. The goal of the meeting was to give them a chance to get to know each other, but also to learn about the concept of voulenteering and voulonteering engagements within The Hastor Foundation.
The director of the Hastor Foundation, Lejla Đonlagić, and the coordinator of the Department of Education and Development, Emra Kulo-Begić, welcomed all the students. At the very beginning of the meeting, the students got to know each other because The Hastor Foundation was always a place where you could meet new people and make new friends. After that, the director presented the mission, vision, and importance of The Hastor Foundation to the students. They learned about the long-term financial and mentoring support that The Hastor Foundation provides for children and young people, which thus contributes to building a more prosperous BiH society.
The director presented the importance of the volunteering process as the pillar of The Hastor Foundation, which was elevated to a high level in the last couple of years. She drew attention to the fact that the goal of the volunteering hours which are held every month is to awaken the most beautiful human qualities in the scholarship recipients: empathy, a sense of belonging in a community, hard work, humanity, and a space to grow, perfect their skills, learn, and acquire new skills that make them more valuable in the labor market.
The new scholarship recipients of the Hastor Foundation were also given training led by Irma Lipovac, a long-time scholarship recipient who, as a mentor and coordinator, helps the scholarship recipients carry out their volunteer activities to the best of their abilities. In order to better prepare the scholarship recipients for future volunteering work, Irma presented the viewpoint of a student performing the volunteering to gain insight into how everything works.
Irma, as someone who has been volunteering under the wing of The Hastor Foundation for a number of years, has passed her knowledge on to the new scholarship recipients and told them about ways to volunteer as best and as creatively as possible. She shared skills and advice with them and talked about pedagogical approaches during volunteer meetings as well as instructional classes. In this way, new scholarship recipients got a sense of The Hastor Foundation; they learned about the concept of work and the importance of volunteering to perform their work in the best and most effective way possible.
Our scholarship recipients did not hide their excitement about finally getting the chance to be a part of The Hastor Foundation and to leave their marks. Scholarship recipient Nermin Osmanović said: I am excited about the activities that are ahead of me. I am also excited about everything else that is going to pose new challenges and give me an opportunity to learn. Also, I think that it is a great honor to be a part of everything that is connected to The Hastor Foundation. It is a great responsibility that I am accepting seriously and decisively.
We are extremely happy and proud that we have become richer for another group of hard-working young people who will surely leave their mark on the Foundation with their work and effort, as well as on society and the environment in which they operate. The Hastor Foundation grows every day and fulfills its vision and continuosly writes positive stories in Bosnian society.
Prepared by: Begić Adelisa
