KAMPALA-Parents and other key players in the society have been asked to work hand in hand in ensuring that all young people in their communities are raised into responsible citizens of this country.
This message was delivered at the 3rd National Prefects Conference held on Thursday at Hotel Africana in Kampala by the Drug Hapana Initiative under a theme: “Drug Abuse Effect on Mental Health”
Dr. Aggrey Kibenge , the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Education who was the chief guest , revealed that proper nurturing of children starts at home with the parents playing a vital role.
“We shall not correct the children’s behaviors in remand homes and rehabilitation centers but its all done at home.The kind of the child you want is defined by a parent because even a school can model your child to the level you want, the role of the school complimentary because teachers always have more children to attend to.” said Kibenge
He added that Children are like gardens which requires extra care and weeding because once that is not done, the weeds may end up destroying the gardens.
“Children in most cases have to be taken care of by the parents, its only those that have lost their parents that are sometimes taken care of by the school, relatives and other members of the society.”
Dr Hafisa Lukwata Ssentongo, the Acting Commissioner mental health and substance use control revealed that their recent Global youth survey 2019 established that a higher proportion of young people are using various forms of tobacco products with majority using cigarettes.
“Statistics clearly shown that the difference between the males and female ( young people ) using tobacco were almost the same. Its Is so unfortunate to find that even the girls are also smoking tobacco in large numbers.”
She therefore advised young people to distance themselves away from such vices because once one starts them at a young age , he/she becomes addicted and it becomes hard for them to quit.
Anne Ssebunnya, the founder and team leader of Drug Hapana Initiative said they decided to use student leaders to champion the fight against drug abuse in schools because its one of the most effective ways through which they can preach against drug abuse in schools. “We are empowering young people as peer educators to reach out to more numbers in their schools.”
Seven years ago when we were starting up this initiative in schools, there was a lot of myths among learners , whereby some used to tell their colleagues that in order to excel in class ,you needed to use at least drugs which was not true.
“There is a need to have mental health clubs in schools to enable students offload some of the challenges they face in their lives since most of their parents are always busy with work.”
George William Alinawe, a student leader at St Patrick’s HS in Hoima painted a grim picture of how young people at his school have been affected by drug and substance abuse. He said students as young as 15 are using drugs, mostly alcohol, cannabis and cigarettes, which as easily sourced from the neighboring communities.
On his part, Fr. Charles Mpiima, the chaplain of St. Joseph’s Institute Kisubi, said the school has put in place measures to prevent and address substance abuse among learners,
“We usually do check up on our students when they are reporting back. We also sensitize and have one-on-one talks on top of using the student leaders to keep watch and report those who might be using drugs.” He added
