Life Skills and Peer Education for 14,000 students

Because you are a valued donor of the Namibia School Awareness Creation Project, we would like to share an update and some photos with you. 2014 has seen the introduction of a project development phase based on the analysis of the main causes of excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs among youth in Namibia, which are:

1. Easy access to alcoholic drinks
2. Dysfunctional family structures
3. Absence of elementary life skills
4. Lack of knowledge among adult caregivers of the dangerous consequences of excessive alcohol and drug consumption

This year Cross Namibia took on a more targeted focus on life skills lessons based on the strategic goals for 2014-2016:

• Increasing awareness of the dangers of alcohol and drug consumption among 10 to 18-year-olds in the Khomas region
• Teaching life skills to enable young people to make conscious decisions about their alcohol and drug consumption
• Promoting income-generating measures for young people to prevent poverty and the associated risky behaviour
• Carrying out lobbying at the government level to ensure strict implementation of the alcohol law regarding the consumption and sale of alcohol

During the next three years the Blue Cross plans to reach 30,000 young people at 30 schools in the Khomas region in its project activities. Planned measures include 3,000 lessons in life skills and the training of 150 peer educators, as well as the establishment of new life skills clubs in partner schools.

The SACP project began reaching out to primary schools in addition to delivering life skills classes at high schools only. The new target group of primary school children was selected because of the early onset of substance use prevalent in Windhoek, which makes health promotion and prevention of addiction at primary school age especially important.

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