Youth Initiative For Tobacco
Use Prevention presentation in Montevideo, June 21, 2005. |
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A pilot program, Youth Initiative For
Tobacco Use Prevention, aimed at encouraging pro-active intervention
by students in the public schools of Montevideo and Canelones
will be launched in coordination with public school authorities
starting in July. The project was designed and will be implemented
under the auspices of the Iniciativa Latinoamericana
in conjunction with the American organization Education Development
Center (EDC) and is supported by the Embassy of the United
States of America in Uruguay, the city of Montevideo's Department
of Health and Social Policies, the Alliance Against Tobacco
Use and the Pan-American Organization of Health (OPS).
The aim of the program is to offer pre-teen
and teenage boys and girls in the public schools of Uruguay
the opportunity to become participants in safeguarding their
health from the threat of tobacco products. The program
hopes to inspire at the community level an active, defensive
posture vis-à-vis the right to live in a healthy,
tobacco-free environment.
With this project, the EDC intends to creatively
implement a plan of action for tobacco prevention that is
relevant to the socio-cultural realities of Uruguayan youth
in the greater Montevideo area. The project will make available
to teachers and administrators a package of resources, including
discussion outlines relevant terminology and other teaching
tools in order to carry out the project in a coordinated
fashion.
The project will, with the help of local teachers,
be initially aimed at adolescents between the ages of 11
and 15, covering more than 80% of the primary and secondary
public schools. The hope is that area private schools will
join in the project at a later date.
Tobacco use is the number one cause of premature
death and as well as physical disability, both of which
are preventable. Tobacco use is growing, most noticeably
among adolescents and teenagers. According to the third
National Survey on Drug and Tobacco Consumption in Uruguay
(conducted in 2001), tobacco is the second most consumed
drug after alcohol. 52.2% of people between 12 and 65 have
tried tobacco once in their life.
For further information: Programa Promocion
de Salud, INICIATIVA LATINOAMERICANA (Tel: 9023186, 094-453-240)
and www.iniciativalatinoamericana.org
or www.edc.org
The programs will be implemented in coordination
with public school authorities starting in July.
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