The ISSUP Gambia Chapter on Friday, November 25th launched a substance awareness campaign dubbed “Don’t Touch” for young children at the Sarah Kindergarten and Primary School in Lamin, in the West Coast Region of the Gambia.
Speaking to a packed hall of pre-teens, Ms. Elisa Mendy told the children that the “Don’t Touch” program is an initiative of the ISSUP Gambia Chapter geared towards discouraging sending children on errands related to illicit substances. Mendy said that children should not be sent on errands to buy, sell or handle tobacco products and other intoxicants.
Ms. Mendy, the Assistant Secretary General of the organisation further said adults should be reminded that it is unethical for them to send children on errands that would require them to touch tobacco products and any other substances that are harmful to human health.
“When you get used to touching tobacco products and other substances harmful to human health, this becomes routine and as you grow old, smoking or drinking becomes normal as you’d have been exposed over several years,” Mendy told the young children.
Mendy further advised the kids to spread this information with their peers, as the fight for substance use prevention begins at an early age.
According to ISSUP Gambia Chapter officials, the Sarah Kindergarten and Primary School prevention intervention is the first outing of its kind targeting a much younger age group. The drug demand reduction body intends to visit several schools with similar messaging.