Between 2017 and 2019, an EU project named DIRECT – Disaster Resilient Communities and Towns was conducted in Montenegro.
The project DIRECT was funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Commission (DG ECHO) and implemented by FORS Montenegro (http://forsmontenegro.org/en/) and the Directorate for Emergency Management of the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro, in partnership with the Protection and Rescue Service of the Municipality of Kranj from Slovenia, Fire and Rescue Brigade of the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic and Czech Association of Fire Officers.
The main goal was to improve the level of preparedness of civil protection systems in Montenegro, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic through capacity building, raising awareness of the population, and international cooperation. The project lasted 27 months, from 1st January 2017 to 31st March 2019, with an overall budget of 736.257,00 euros.
The targeted groups were not only firefighters or rescuers, but also local population and communities, children, youth or associated institutions (e.g. schools).
There were two key objectives:
– to strengthen the capacity of professionals from target municipalities for disaster risk reduction through training, exchange of experiences and best practices (traffic accidents, wildfires, floods, search and rescue, etc.),
– to contribute to an improved level of preparedness of local communities through raising the awareness of the population from target municipalities on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Main project activities included trainings for rescuers on protection and rescue in case of fires, floods, earthquakes, etc., field rescue exercises, trainings on Disaster Risk Reduction , development of evacuation plans for schools and local communities, evacuation exercises, awareness raising campaign related to disaster risks, study visit to EU and international conferences on disaster risk reduction.