PLEASANT TALK

We met one Saturday afternoon in a cafe on the ferry near the Sava bridge but very quickly we gave up enjoying fresh air of the river (no sun at all, much too much wind + dirty water of the one and only the river of ours - the famous Sava). So, we moved to a quite ordinary cafe, nearby. So much for surroundings.

Since this newsletter will be read by many people (-: , it would be nice to introduce all of you with the participants of this very important talk.

Ivana Laginja - the director of Suncokret and the source for the information for everything related to finances, general politics, etc.
Vesna Pupavac - Manager of Personnel - talked mostly about Suncokret personnel politics, of course.
Djurdjica Ivkovic - Program Manager (function speaks for itself) - was irrepressible talking about changes in her area.

Since Djurdjica and her department are the youngest in the picture, they are full of the enthusiasm and energy. Independence of each departments manager is a big change when you compare it with the functioning of the Executive Committee (changing from the group to individual responsibility). Decisions that were made after a long and exhausting meetings now mostly depends on one person. We have a Governing Board again, but the change is that the members are not Suncokret workers. They are:

Vlado Puljiz - chairman of the Department for Social Work at the Faculty of Law, Zagreb
Branka Skaramusa - Director of Human Recourses, Pliva, Zagreb
Arpad Barath - professor at Medical School, Zagreb
Blanka Segovic - vice president of the "Children First", Zagreb
Dzevded Hadziselimovic - psychologist in the primary school, Pula - chairman of the Governing Board.

Before each meeting the director of Suncokret gives her work plan and plans of department managers (Finance, Programs, Personnel) for the next three months and the Governing Board evaluate the plans recording to work reports from the previous period. It is very possible that we will invite some public people as honorary members of the Governing Board. General politics for the next year is based on intensive development of personnel, programs, finding other sources of financing and planned presentations in public. Talking to Suncokret managers I have got the impression that the structure is (we were fighting about that for so long) finally setting in the right place, or, in other words, is filling with an appropriate substance.

How? Maybe you will find out in this text at least a part of the answer.

Suncokret began as an organization that worked exclusively on a voluntary basis. It took a long time until people accepted that there was a need for steady professional personnel who would be able to lead various activities and to maintain a level of quality . So, now we are hiring part-time professionals, respecting the principle that we are searching for our personnel primarily among the local people. If no one local fulfills the required conditions, we will ask foreign organizations for help. Exceptions on both sides are people that have special skills and knowledge. In that case foreigners sign with Suncokret a six month contract.

It has to be said that considering the variety of our activities there is enough place for many kind of professions to be involved on different levels. We will invite foreigners for summer and winter holidays only and the news is that they are going to stay for a month, instead of three weeks as it used to be.

The model that was based on work with short and long term volunteers is definitely out. There will be a lot of difference between work during the holidays and the rest of the year. Perhaps the new model is closest to the American summer camps which are only an addition and enrichment of the activities that they work on for the whole year. Since they will bring fresh, new ideas and concentrated energy, the increased number of foreign and domestic volunteers is welcomed during the summer and winter holidays. Presence of Suncokret part-time workers will prevent chaos and possible complications due to lack of knowledge about the situation in the centers.

One can say that the voluntary philosophy is replaced with the professionalism but it is planned that until the end of this year we will find a new way of motivating and involving volunteers in our work. The assumption is that at the very moment we form a solid core of professional part-time workers, more space for volunteers will be available again.

It is clear that the shift from volunteers to professionals means more money from the budget. For the third year we have same donors (UNHCR and various foreign fondations) but we are looking for new sources of financing. For example, Bob Conte is looking for financial recources in North America. Not enough of the relevant organizations and individuals know what Suncokret is doing. So, in order to promote our work we started collaboration with the Department for Marketing at the Faculty of Economics. From the sporadic calls to volunteers on the radio and little nonprofessional advertising campaigns to well-tought out presentations. This is one of the developmental images..

[ekipa] And here is another one. Suncokret has worked for several years in about 20 centers. In January 1995 the first work permission was received. Until that we had been working only with the verbal agreement of the Goverment officce for refugees nad dispalced persons. Suncokret workers had a big reason for insecurity. Why it took us so long to get the documents of such importance? Giving official permission depends on whether or not you have a work programs. Well, we did not have them at the time, so...

Anyway, programs are done according to specific characteristics of the regions and permission is given out for each center separately. Planned activities are classified according to their content and the age of participants, such as groups for socialization, debating groups for women, a number of various creative groups, sports and recreation and educational activities.

What does the existance of programs mean for the conrete work in the field?

Above all, they are giving the possibility to plan according to the big picture in the already existing plan. It means that we can make a plan for permanent education of our employees and finally give feed back about the success (or failer) of our activities.
We will get feed back from the evaluation of the work. Evaluation will be made on the judgement of the participants and attenders.of the activities. That kind of control is a part of our obligation to the donors, as well as to ourselves. Paul Stubbs and Natalija Mujic are working on a special evaluation project of the work of humanitarian organizations. As ex and present "Suncokrets" they will pay special attention to our organization.
The next news is that we started with an estimation of the needs in the centers and the source of the information will be questionars or verbal statements of the centers residents. In the center where we have been working for a long time we are slowly shifting to individual or goup counciling work. Gathering groups are divided (before even to 100 women) to smaller ones where they can talk about their personel problems (going back, fear of the future)and others, such as praying groups (they are choosing a subject of a disscusion)

And finally, what are our plans for the future?

To continue work in the collective centers with regard to the estimation of our previous work (interviews with our directors of regions and evaluation).
To open clubs in the towns, primerely for young people (see the article about New Zagreb) Work on the prevention of "unwanted" forms of behaviour. (see the article about health and social education)
To develop a model of cooperation with places on the front line (know-how, financial and material help and to recognize and support inicitiatives that are already active.
To develop a program of help for return of the displaced persons.

And just a little something for the end. What I have heard in those few hours of conversation could be said in one sentence (khm!) Big ambitions and, as it looks like, an inexhaustible source of energy and ideas. Symbolism of the name shows here some of the power. Suncokret is growing to a beautifull, usefull, and strong flower.

sanja