Between October 20 and 22, representatives of the Red Cross of Serbia went on a monitoring to the Red Cross of Montenegro. Natasa Todorovic, coordinator of the project "Strengthening the resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis and future crises" and Dr Milutin Vracevic during this visit had a meeting with Jelena Dubak, Secretary General of the Red Cross of Montenegro and the associates in the National Society participating in the implementation of project activities.

At the meeting with Jelena Dubak and the project team, the achieved results and future planned activities were discussed, and special attention was paid to the work of telephone support centres that started providing psychological first aid, psychosocial support and information to older persons and persons with disabilities during the first year of project implementation. Deterioration of mental health, especially in people who otherwise belong to potentially vulnerable groups, is one of the significant negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, so during the first year the project is focused on supporting populations of older persons and persons with disabilities in this area. During this monitoring visit, meetings were also held with the coordinators in charge of other activities in the project: cash and voucher assistance, research and public advocacy.

During the visit, the representatives of the Red Cross of Serbia visited the centre for providing telephone support in Nicksic and they could on the spot see the effectiveness of this type of support. The project currently has thirty such centres at six project sites in the Western Balkans region, where activities are coordinated by national partners and the Red Cross of Serbia, and the project is being implemented with the support of the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency.