Glacis primary hosts launch of drug awareness month |11 June 2019

The annual drug awareness month in schools was officially launched at Glacis primary school yesterday morning.

The month-long of activities provide schools the opportunity to intensify their education, resilience and awareness programmes against substance use.

The Campaign for Awareness, Resilience and Education (Care) against substance abuse in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development team up to organise and officially launch the activities in schools each year.

The theme for the 2018 awareness month is 'Les lanmour refleri – partaz lanmour pa drog’

Students and teachers of Glacis primary school shared reflections, poems, songs emphasising the theme.

Guests at the launch ceremony included the chairperson of Care, Sarah Rene; director of Care, Noella Gonthier; director for primary schools, Cyril Pillay; the ambassador for women and children, Erna Athanasius; the MNA for Glacis, Regina Esparon; parents and other concerned stakeholders in the community.

Vivienne Preira, the head teacher of Glacis primary, advised the pupils gathered for the ceremony to “say no to drugs” and instead engage themselves in other positive activities.

“The powerful message is say no to drugs, as responsible adults we have the responsibility to provide a safe and conducive environment for the youth.”

She urged the students to be more attentive and set realistic goals for a bright future without drugs and have the courage to say no to drugs

Addressing the guests, students and teachers, Mr Pillay thanked Care for the various work that it has done throughout the years as well as its partnership with the Ministry of Education in its efforts to bring drug awareness in schools.

Mr Pillay added that “the theme this year is a reflection of love, love for yourself and to adopt a healthy lifestyle”.

Before officially launching the awareness month, Mr Pillay said that the time for speaking has long passed us and now is time for action to eliminate this problem in the schools and in the community.

For her part, Mrs Gonthier said: “This awareness month is very crucial for Care's prevention work in schools, it sorts of culminates all of our efforts during the year and strengthens our programmes.”

“Prevention is the most important and long-term approach in fighting drug addiction,” she continued.

“The message to our children is always that addiction is hard to get out of, and so Care does not just tell them not to take drugs but also teaches them how not to, this is where our resilience programmes and character building play significant roles,” Mrs Gonthier stressed.

She added that Care cannot do all of the work by themselves and need the cooperation of parents as they play a key role in protecting their child from drugs.

During the awareness month, schools will organise various activities such as debates, creating posters and writing poems and organising workshops for parents.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the launch ceremony.