House of Support

Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are faced with a rapidly ageing population, the break-up of the multi-generational family model and the outflow of young people from their hometowns and villages, leaving more older persons living alone and in need of support. At the same time, older persons face limited access to targeted support services for a dignified and healthy life in old age.

To address this issue, Hilfswerk International jointly with its partners in the last years has been actively promoting elderly rights and elderly services in the South Caucasus and Western Balkans regions. Capitalizing also on its long-standing and vast experience in the field of home care and related services in Austria, so called “Houses of Support” have been successfully established since 2021 as independent local social service providers. These facilities deliver high-quality nursing and psycho-social support services to older persons through mobile care currently in two regions of Georgia (Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli) and one Canton in BiH (Sarajevo). This has been complemented by strengthening “Healthy Ageing Centers” run by Hilfswerk International’s cooperation partners, providing a welcoming space for older persons to socialize, participate in various activities, and receive consultations from professionals as required.

Thereby, working together with local and central governments played a key role in the programme's success. Currently, promising developments are under way in both countries that reflect a rising readiness by policy makers to allocate public budgets to competent service providers to render services to older persons, especially to socially vulnerable. However, such initiatives are still limited both in financial and geographical terms, still leaving the vast majority of older persons in need of care without support, hampering their right for “Ageing with Dignity".

The second phase of the programme therefore strives to improve older persons' quality of life and access to needed services through:

• sustaining mobile home care service providers (Houses of Support) and expanding their coverage
• securing funding from various government support systems for vulnerable older persons;
• strengthening gender-sensitive healthy ageing services in Georgia and fostering networking and cooperation among service providers.

• Further technical and institutional strengthening of Houses of Support;
• Securing financing for mobile care services from public and private sources;
• Expanding mobile care services to new municipalities/regions;
• Promoting and offering gender-sensitive Healthy Ageing activities in Georgia;
• Advocacy and lobbying for elderly rights among stakeholders and general awareness raising activities.

• Min. 160 older individuals directly benefitting from mobile services;
• Min. 150 persons involved in Healthy Ageing activities;
• Min. 130 capacitated caregivers;
• 20 staff members specialised in Healthy Ageing;
• Up to 180 regional/cantonal/municipal staff and local health workers;
• Min. 50 NGOs/CSOs related to the elderly field;
• Local population of target municipalities at large benefiting from programme activities.

Project implemented by Hilfswerk International in cooperation with IDP Women Association “Consent”, House of Support, Georgian Association of Social Workers, Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia in Georgia, as well as Association for Help and Development HAJDE and Hilfswerk House of Support in Bosnia and Herzegovina.