The UNODC Youth Initiative shares Youth Action articles to showcase the accomplishments of youth in the fields of drug prevention, health promotion, and youth empowerment across various regions worldwide. This week, we are highlighting the endeavors of Milestones Rehabilitation Foundation, a DAPC grantee from Nigeria. They endeavored to promote substance use prevention among youth in schools through the implementation of a prevention programme, ‘School based life skills training for adolescent girls in Kaduna, Nigeria’ among 350 adolescent girls at a Girls Secondary School in Kabala Costain, Kaduna. The programme aimed to equip students with the skills to resist peer pressure, enhance self-esteem and self-confidence, and effectively cope with anxieties.
The project sought to enhance the students' knowledge and understanding of key concepts covered in the sessions, which ranged from advocacy, curriculum evaluation and instructor selection, assessment and exclusion of at-risk students, training of instructors in substance use prevention, implementation of Lifeskills Training (LST) program, to monitoring and evaluation of the project's progress. Upon completion of the LST program, students were encouraged to voluntarily and independently establish a GGSS Drug-Free Club. The goal of the club was to provide mutual support to other young leaders based on the knowledge and skills acquired during the LST training. Club members conducted group discussions and promoted health activities, thereby contributing to a school environment that strengthens protective factors in line with evidence-based prevention. This involvement by young people is meaningful, in that youth empowerment has sustainable impacts and fosters community empowerment, extending the project's effects beyond the immediate beneficiaries. In addition, school's teachers received training to maintain the LST program and also training other educators to ensure the program's longevity.
The DAPC grants enable projects to become a reality, thanks to the contributions from the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (DAPC) in Japan. DAPC aim to reach underserved regions around the world by supporting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in low- and middle-income countries dedicated to advancing substance use prevention and empowering youth. We also give thanks to and congratulate DAPC grantee Milestones Rehabilitation Foundation, for sharing their success story, and for their contribution to supporting the youths in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Thanks to the generous support of the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (Japan).