A Small Team Making Big Changes

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Every day, through our work and collaboration with our partner organizations, we are reminded of the truth behind this statement. The Center for Children, Youth, and Families Laktaši has been successfully implementing the Older Brother, Older Sister program for the second year in a row, and they are truly a small organization, a small team of people in a small town — but with big hearts.

In this program cycle, Laktaši has eight active pairs of children and volunteers, but they are all closely connected, regularly meet, and gladly organize joint gatherings. The changes in the children are more than visible, but also in the volunteers themselves. Through a conversation with coordinator Jelena Jeremić and her colleague Vanja Ilić, we concluded that the second year of implementing the Older Brother, Older Sister program is going much better and more smoothly, and they both expressed their satisfaction with the program.

During the monitoring visit held last week, they prepared an interesting activity for the children and volunteers — a treasure hunt where we had to solve various questions, puzzles, and riddles to find the treasure. Vanja gave us a brief reflection on the Older Brother, Older Sister program and our monitoring visits:

"We are now in the second cycle of implementing the Older Brother, Older Sister program, and we must admit that we feel much more at ease. The 'scary procedures' from the first cycle no longer seem so intimidating. Visits from our donors at the Foundation are just another opportunity to spend time with our friends, who are always ready to support us. It is truly wonderful to implement a program focused on the quality of activities for both children and volunteers. Our small team is amazing, we support each other and work together to create activities. When it comes to the benefits for the children, they are truly immeasurable and difficult to put into words."

Thank you very much to Vanja and Jelena for their hospitality, and we believe that this excellent cooperation will continue for many years to come!

Ivana Radić
Executive Director
Foundation for the Support and Development of
Mentoring Programs Older brother, older sister