Croatian Red Cross joined the implementation of a project that will be partially funded from the EU funds "Promotion of the Harm Reduction policy – the Red Cross approach". The project gathers the Red Cross National Societies from Bulgaria, France, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia, Portugal and Croatia.

The aims of the project are: prevention of drug misuse, harm reduction and promotion of substitute therapy in treating addictive diseases. The aim of the project is to establish a multi-disciplinary network of the Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies that will enable spreading of specific knowledge and skills and raising awareness on social and health issues linked to drug misuse.

Although the project is for the EU member states only, Croatian Red Cross is a partner in the project. Within the project, the Croatian Red Cross has an active role as one of the National Societies that act as trainers (within the French-Italian team). Status of the partner in this project is a good recommendation for the future EU funded projects.

The Regional Representation of the International Federation expressed interest in this project as well. This is the first project that displays various possibilities of active cooperation of the National Societies within the EU in the areas of public health and therefore drew a lot of interest of the international institutions.

Siniša Zovko, M.D., M.Sc.