“Daily life is based on what we receive, but we truly live from what we give,” Winston Churchill once said. When he said this, he didn’t just mean giving in a material sense – every kind word we share, advice, an idea, all of that can enrich our lives, but also the life of the person we offer it to. Mentors of the Hastor Foundation are walking this very path, as they strive to be role models for our younger scholars, passing on as much of their knowledge as possible with the best and most engaging approach. Small Stories of Great Volunteers is a column that reveals the true treasure of the Hastor Foundation because, month by month, by bringing the most interesting stories from our fieldwork, we showcase countless good deeds and those beautiful moments that the Hastor Foundation is truly proud of.
This month’s group of our scholars comes from Sarajevo. Samra Đuderija and Zana Beljuri are two dedicated mentors who skillfully and carefully prepare meetings for their 13 high school students. Their volunteer hours are filled with meetings featuring carefully planned workshops and community volunteering. Every month, they strive to prepare something new and different, something that will be interesting to the students but, of course, also useful.
This month, they had both forms of volunteering on the same day, and we’ll learn how it all went in the following lines.
“We fully committed ourselves to this workshop and tried to convey everything we had planned to the students,” Samra stated at the beginning of our conversation. She added that the final result was successful, and they achieved most of what they had planned. Their meeting began with the topic of activism and the role of young people in society, as well as the importance of formal and informal education for the future. With this in mind, they decided to organize the workshop into small stations where certain courses were presented, designed to give students practical knowledge they could apply. The first course the scholars encountered was a painting and drawing course. This course was specially prepared, considering that painting is Samra’s hobby. After that, the students attended a course in surgical stitching, where they learned how to sew individual stitches and tie surgical knots – all with the help of a banana. A bit unusual, isn’t it? This is what our mentors do – with some unique ideas and actions, they quietly influence the younger scholars, leaving behind a wealth of knowledge and cherished memories. The third, but no less important, was the embroidery art course. This time, with their combined efforts, our hardworking scholars embroidered the name of the Hastor Foundation. The mentors noted that the students were pleasantly surprised by what was prepared, and there was no shortage of laughter and conversation.
“I learned how to do a surgical stitch, which was a very interesting and useful experience. Besides that, we talked about serious topics, like how to recognize and help people in crisis situations. It was educational and inspiring to see how small changes can make a big difference in others’ lives,” student Mediha Hećimović shared her experience with us.
In the second part of the workshop, the students drew pieces of paper with common problems among youth written on them. The paper represented a friend’s problem, and the task was to explain how they would help in that situation, Samra noted. She added that they also had other pieces of paper with various pieces of advice, and the students had to explain whether the advice would actually help them. In addition, the students had the opportunity to work in Canva, creating posters to convey certain messages to young people. The first poster was about mental health, and the second discussed burnout syndrome.
“Through volunteering with the Hastor Foundation, I’ve had the chance to develop skills that are already invaluable to me. From lectures on formal and informal education to learning surgical stitching – which is a perfect blend of theory and practice for my future career in medicine. Besides that, volunteering has allowed me to explore and develop my creative side through drawing and making Canva posters, especially on the topic of mental health. It gave me a chance to contribute to important topics in a different way,” said another scholar from this workshop, Imran Tabaković.
In the end, everyone was visibly satisfied with the activities completed, and they finished another meeting with light conversation. Volunteering carries great strength and humanity. Every hour, every act of kindness, every smile we offer through volunteer work can have a deep and lasting impact on those we help. So, let volunteering be our daily mission, because only then can we make the world a better place for all of us.
