On Monday  29January 2024, the coordinators of the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during COVID-19 and future disasters”, Nataša Todorović and Dr Milutin Vračević, visited the Red Cross Subotica, one of the centres where during the previous three years direct support activities for older persons and persons with disabilities were implemented. During this visit, the emphasis was on healthy aging activities and talking with the beneficiaries themselves, who expressed great satisfaction with the structured activities that the volunteers implemented with them. They rated the project as important and useful for their health and the workshops regularly lasted longer than the scheduled hour at the request of the beneficiaries themselves.

They hope that in a future project with a similar focus, there will be an opportunity to emphasize intergenerational solidarity more strongly, that is, activities in which older and younger generations will participate together. It was suggested that in a future project, after the lecture on healthy eating, older and younger people should be given the task of preparing food from the same ingredients, in order to see how each generation sees healthy food.

Also, it was emphasized that the physical activities during the workshops were very useful and many continued to do them individually at home, and the proposal is to include dance in the physical activities in a future project.

The project is financed by the European Union and the Austrian Development Agency, and it is coordinated by the Red Cross of Serbia in five countries of the region.

“I was like an old machine that they cleaned for a new use. They made me fall in love again and I'm still here.” – Gabi.

“In these activities, you feel that you got something, but also that you gave something. ‘Physical exercises’ also make me feel better mentally.” - Mara.