As part of the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis and future disasters” supported by the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency, and coordinated by the Red Cross of Serbia, a visit to the Red Cross Niš was carried out. Red Cross Niš is one of 30 centers in the Western Balkans that implements healthy aging activities.

Since the beginning of the project, there have been over 700 calls from older persons and persons  with disabilities as part of psychological first aid by phone. In accordance with the Decade of Healthy Aging, in addition to telephone support, healthy aging activities involving 92 older persons and persons with disabilities started in 2022.

Groups meet every week and in addition to education about social inclusion, healthy eating, preventive health and mental health, physical exercises are also a regular part of these sessions. It is important to note that the members of the groups are active and take care of solidarity, gender equality and the importance of lifelong learning, so in the coming period there will be an Esperanto lecture, as well as a football lecture, where the basics will be demonstrated by an older woman who was also a member of the Serbian Women's Football Team.

The visit was implemented by expert associates of the Red Cross of Serbia, Nataša Todorović and Dr Milutin Vračević.