Information on the meeting with the representatives of the partners of the regional project “Taking action for social inclusion of the elderly”

Within the framework of the Regional project “Taking action for social inclusion of the elderly”, financed by the European Union, and supported by the Austrian Agency for Development and the Austrian Red Cross, during the period from 20-22 of September a meeting with the representatives of the partners of this project was held in the Serbian Red Cross, Belgrade. The project is realized for the third time and up until this period valuable results have been achieved in five countries including Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and BiH. Partners of the project from the Republic of Macedonia are the Macedonian Red Cross and the Humanost Association. The main goal of the meeting was to prepare an action plan for implementing the activities in the final phase of the project, which also includes the preparation of positive practices from the implementation of the micro projects in all countries, and the preparation of a final conference in which the achieved results will be promoted.

During the meeting representatives from all partners presented the results achieved so far from the project, as well as the plans for the activities that will be realized until the end of the project. The changes that happened in all countries as a result of the implemented project activities in the past two years were also highlighted. It was also emphasized that it is very important that the project strengthened the networks and that hard work was put for their further sustainability in each country. It is of particular importance that through small projects, which are of great importance for the active involvement of the elderly, to motivate the citizens’ associations to become members of the networks. Each partner spoke about the visibility of the implementation of the project activities through which, additionally to promoting the effects of the project activities, the elderly themselves were allowed to speak in their own name on issues that lead to improving their quality of life. Regarding the implementation of the activities, the financial possibilities for organizing additional activities until the completion of the project were also considered.