ISLAMABAD: In continuance of its mission to fighting the war on drugs in Pakistan, the Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation has launched recently the European Union best practice drug prevention education initiative “Unplugged – adapted in Pakistan as Hum Saath Hain”, at Mashal community school, Bari Imam, Islamabad. KKAWF is the first civil society outfit to bring this prevention awareness programme to local schools in Islamabad. Delivered by KKAWF Board member and education advisor Ms. Lubna Hayauddin a UN certified life-skills trainer, the programme will have participation of 100 students and run for 12 weeks with one session each week. This interactive life skills program is targeted at 12-15 years old, where the students during the course of the programme are exposed to the knowledge on drugs and their ill-effect on the physical and social health of the individuals and others associated to these people. The youth are equipped in skills such as communication, problem solving, critical thinking to handle peer pressure and make wise decisions, raise drug use awareness and understanding to promote healthy behavior. The student participants will receive their completion certificates at a concluding ceremony with attendance of distinguished guests.
KKAWF plans to continue implementation of Hum Saath Hainprogramme among teachers and students in schools across Islamabad and other areas. School teachers are trained on the unplugged modules and enabled to deliver to more students, which will allow for benefits of the programme to outreach more students continually.
Speaking at the occasion Cristina von Sperling Afridi, Chairperson KKAWF said that drug use is one of the biggest public health challenge we face as it is further putting at risk the young population under 30 – 0f 130 million in Pakistan to addiction of drugs during the times of the Covid-19 pandemic. She said that only last year, hundreds of teenagers had lost their lives and other hundreds of thousands unfortunately have started to indulge on drugs resulting in this big epidemic menace in our society and the future of the Country. It is imperative that stigma is broken and prevention is used as a powerful tool to fight the menace of the drug problem.
KKAWF is working since 2015 with rich experience on promoting healthy behavior among youth regarding adverse effects of drug abuse. KKAWF implements its mission by equipping youth with better knowledge and awareness, breaking taboos through prevention education using its five pillars of drug abuse, arts, sports, environment, civic sense to build protective factors for youth and engage with them to make healthy life choices and better identify, understand and manage emotions.
