Drug council sponsors school quiz
It is a battle that often appears hopeless, but the effort to eradicate the scourge of drugs still remains high on society’s list of priorities. In Belize one organisation, the National Drug Abuse Control Council, is trying to educate people using a technique the kids can relate to.
Jacqueline Woods
Drug awareness week will be celebrated from June 4th to June 9th. But since May 15th, primary school students from across the country have been competing in the annual drug education quiz to qualify for the national finals. Today, the Belize District was the last to hold its contest.
In the end, Maria Beslac of Holy Redeemer Upper School and Shanice Lovell of St. Martin De Porres will be representing the Belize District in the national finals on June 9th at Orange Walk’s People’s Stadium. The drug quiz is just one of the avenues the National Drug Abuse Control Council uses to get their message across to students.
Marlon McNab, Belize District Coordinator, NDACC
“Because from time to time, new information is being sent to us, and this is one of the most effective medium we can get it out and secondly we have taken a twist where first we began with just drug information and we thought that besides knowing what to do, they needed to know how to do it, so we included the life skills scenario section which is a second part of life skills scenario section.”
But as students learn as much as they can about the dangers of drugs, those who are already addicted do not receive the adequate care, treatment and rehabilitation.
Ornel Brooks Executive Director, NDACC
“What is happening is that there are so many people who are out there, who are drug addicts, who are in need of treatment and rehabilitation and we do not have the type of facilities to provide the required or necessary treatment. There are two institutions, Le Patriarch and Remar but they are far from what is required if we are to do the job of providing that necessary service of rehabilitation.”
Presently, NDACC is in the process of preparing a proposal seeking external funding to support programmes like the establishment of treatment and rehabilitation centres.
