The local Bosco Youth Service Network held yesterday a one-day drug awareness campaign at the Social Welfare Bureau’s (IAS) Healthy Life Education Centre in Areia Preta district, and FREEland Centre chief Dickson Tam Tek Sang told reporters that the centre, since last year, has come into contact with nearly 60 young people at risk of gambling and drug addiction in the community, a similar number year on year, mainly involving factors such as peer influence, “unmanageable” academic pressure, and exposure to gambling and drugs through meeting “undesirable” people on social media platforms.
In response to the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking commemorated on Wednesday, the centre, through the hosting of a parent-child labyrinth experience and interactive games yesterday, has also released parenting information on the themes of parent-child relationships, peers and family discipline, aiming to promote healthy living and good parent-child relationships, according to Tam, who underlined: “We’ve seen a lot of studies that say the better the relationship between a child and his or her parents, the better it is for the child to grow up and face all kinds of challenges, including resisting the risk of drug addiction or other deviant behaviours”.
The second half of the year will see another awareness-raising campaign between September and December on the theme of mental health, in the hope of helping young people who are in great need of support in the area of mental health, Tam said, adding: “We hope to make appeals and receive responses through the campaign to help young people find ways to help themselves or maintain their physical and mental health, apart from seeking assistance from social workers when those in need of support are facing different challenges”.
Yesterday’s campaign attracted a large number of parents and their children, and a mother and two girls told reporters separately they believed that the campaign could enhance the importance of anti-drug awareness, hoping that more similar activities would be launched in the future.
Kids and their parents learn how to live a healthy life during yesterday’s drug awareness campaign by the Bosco Youth Service Network, at the Social Welfare Bureau’s (IAS) Healthy Life Education Centre in Areia Preta district. – Photo: Yuki Lei
