Drugs preventive program to be launched in Batken schools

Bishkek, Jan. 9, 2019. / Kabar /. A preventive program “Closer to each other - farther from drugs” has been launched in schools of Batken oblast since January 9, 2019.

According to the Republican Center for Health Strengthening, more than 800 teachers from 158 schools in Batken region will be trained on prevention of substance use to increase parental involvement in raising children.

The main objective of the program is to strengthen family ties that contribute to building trust between parents and children, which may affect the prevention of risky behavior in adolescence associated with the use of psychoactive substances.

Within the framework of the project, teachers who have been trained will hold parental meetings and open lessons for their colleagues. The program is expected to cover more than 30,000 parents in the near future, who will acquire skills in establishing constructive relationships in the family, identifying the first signs of adolescent substance use, operational family intervention, and preventing adolescent risk behavior.

Trainings will be held from January to May, 2019. The possibility of implementing this training arose due to the financing of the program by a project of the European Union in Kyrgyzstan.

The program “Closer to each other - farther from drugs” was developed as part of the 6th phase of a drug abuse prevention program in Central Asia (CADAP 6). This is a joint work of European and Kyrgyz experts. The program was approved by the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic and the State Drug Control Service of the Kyrgyz Republic. Testing of this method was conducted in 2016 in 57 pilot schools of the republic and confirmed its effectiveness.