Rendering community-based services for healthy ageing

January 2011 - December 2013

The project aims to enhance the health and quality of life of its final beneficiaries - approx. 350,000.00 persons over the age of 60 - living in Grodno oblast (incl. Voronovo district), and Braslav district (Vitebsk oblast). According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, 16% of the elderly over 60 live in the urban areas and 27% in the rural areas.

The indirect beneficiaries include the families of the elderly who are currently bearing the greatest burden for supporting the elderly, professionals and state social service providers (municipal administrators, social workers, legal advisors, home care providers) who experience great obstacles in their work because of the inadequate system for social care.

Overall objective of the project is to enhance the quality of life of elderly people in Belarus through development of community-based services, promotion of appropriate policies, programmes and legislation for the elderly care.

The project will contribute to achieving the overall objective in three ways:

• Building the capacity of local authorities in developing, implementing and sustaining policies, programmes and services that improve the lives of elderly people.
• Enabling older people to gain access to services through provision of information on entitlements, advice on accessing these and confidence building to approach those who hold control of information, resources and services.
• Raising awareness for the importance of revision of existing and/or adoption of new legislation and strategies on elderly care.

The partners in this project are the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania, the municipalities of Alytus, Druskininkai and Ignalina (Lithuania) and the municipalities of Grodno, Voronovo and Braslav (Belarus).

The project is financed by the European Commission under the Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development Programme - In-country Operations in Belarus 2009-2010 AAP.