From 9 to 11 December 2024, a kick-off meeting was held in Podgorica, Montenegro, as part of the project Before Time – Empowering Women and Communities for Protection Against Cervical Cancer. The meeting was organized and coordinated by the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro.
The project Before Time is implemented within the Interreg VI-A IPA Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina-Montenegro program. The objectives and activities of the project are implemented in two main areas: prevention (primary prevention) and early detection of prestage and initial cancer (secondary prevention) of cervical cancer with a total budget of about 1.3 million euros. The abbreviated name of the project emphasizes the importance of prevention and the well-known proverb “Prevention before treatment intervention” – Prevention before treatment intervention.
The project is coordinated by the Institute of Public Health Zadar, and a total of six partners from three countries are participating. You can read more about the project at the link: https://www.hzjz.hr/projekti/interreg-projekt-o-jacanju-prevencije-raka-vrata-maternice-before-time/
As part of the meeting, a press conference was held organized by the project partner Institute of Public Health of Montenegro on the topic of presentation and announcement of the start of the project, on Tuesday, December 10th, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., in the premises of the Hilton Hotel.
The participants of the press conference were representatives of the project partners: Institute of Public Health Zadar (HR) – project manager, Health Center Mostar (BA), Health Center Tivat (ME), Institute of Public Health of Montenegro (ME), Institute of Mediterranean Economy Perspectives (HR) and Croatian Institute of Public Health (HR). In addition to the representatives of the institutions that are partners in the project, the Kick-off Conference was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of European Affairs in the Government of Montenegro, representatives of the Capital City, non-governmental organizations, the Montenegrin medical journal “Medical”, as well as media representatives.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Snežana Barjaktarović Labović, Acting Director of the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro, opened the conference with words of welcome to all participants and pointed out that this conference is not only an introduction to the implementation of the project, but also an opportunity to strengthen cooperation and all together become messengers of important messages about prevention.
At the beginning, the main objectives and activities of the project, the activities achieved and planned so far, and the expected outcomes of the project were briefly presented. The central part of the conference were presentations of epidemiological data from the countries involved in the project, which were presented for Croatia by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Alan Medić, MD, PhD Epidemiology Specialist, Director of the Mostar Health Center, Kristina Bevanda, MD. Epidemiology Specialist for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dr. Marija Raičević, Epidemiology Specialist for Montenegro.
The final presentation at the conference was given by Ivanka Matas, MD microbiology specialist from the Institute of Public Health Zadar, who presented the role and procedure of HPV testing, followed by questions and answers, giving all participants the opportunity for additional information about the plans and activities of the project.
During the three day meeting that was held at the Hilton Hotel and the premises of the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro, the project partners presented their institutions, discussed the main work packages of the project, guidelines for reporting and the draft plan of the communication strategy for the target populations as part of primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer, including ideas for the main prevention messages.
This event marked the beginning of the implementation of the Before Time project, and the project partners discussed and exchanged experiences related to the implementation of project activities and laid the foundations for further joint work during the next three years of this international project.
Link about the article regarding project from the Montenegro media:
