Strengthening Families Programme is scaling up to 12 schools in the capital of Uzbekistan

Tashkent, 9-11 April 2018 - Over 40 psychologists, youth leaders and teachers of Tashkent city arrived in the "Barkamol Avlod" children center to participate in the training of trainers as a part of the "Strengthening Families Programme for youth aged 10-14" (SFP 10-14). The training is organized by the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia (ROCA) in close cooperation with the Ministry of Public Education (MoPE) of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

"Ensuring safe and drugs-free childhood for our children remains a priority for the Government of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan joins the global action to combat drugs and considers the cooperation with UNODC as one of the key elements on the way. We consider this training an important part of drug prevention policies.'- said Mr. Dilshod Kenjayev, Deputy Minister of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. "We hope that the SFP 10-14 will expand to other regions of Uzbekistan, since we witness the effectiveness of this programme in Tashkent city." - he added.

The training is designed to introduce the participants the components of the SFP 10-14, so that they are able to hold trainings for parents and children in respective schools. According to the joint plan of the MoPE and ROCA, new trainers will conduct family skills sessions for 120 families in 12 schools of Tashkent. From 12 April to 8 June, children and their parents will participate in the sessions which aim to share life skills on overcoming stress at school and preventing negative impact on children.

The SFP 10-14 is a family skills training programme aiming at decreasing the use and intention to use tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs, children's behavior problems, and increasing children's social and life skills and family cohesion. Becoming a teenager can be a challenging time for youth and parents alike. The Strengthening Families Programme is proven to support parents and youth through this time of change.

In 2016-2017, the SFP 10-14 was successfully piloted in Tashkent city. The relevance of the family skills training programme as a tool for prevention of substance abuse and risk behavior among youth led to expansion of this programme in the capital city.

The training marks a five-year anniversary of successful and productive cooperation between the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the UNODC ROCA. Within the framework of cooperation, the "Families and Schools Together (FAST)" family skills programme was also implemented in Uzbekistan. Successful in more than 14 countries, the FAST programme was adopted for Uzbekistan and is now applied around the country. The FAST - is a family skills programme for the primary school children (aged 6-8) and their families aiming at building protective factors for children to increase their resilience and well-being, as well as bringing parents, children, teachers and communities together.

Ms. Ashita Mittal, the UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, thanked the Ministry of Public Education for productive cooperation during the years and noted that the participants are joining the global journey of implementation of the SFP 10-14 that offers international best-practices of preventing drug use through family skills trainings.

The "Strengthening Families Programme" is a part of the UNODC global project on "Prevention of drug use, HIV/AIDS and crime among young people through family skills training programmes in low- and middle-income countries".

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For more information

 Please, contact Ms. Gulnar Kudaybergenova,

Project Assistant, UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia

Tel: +998(71) 120-80-50

e-mail : gulnar.kudaybergenova[at]un. org