Ministry of Youth and Sports embarks On Training of At-Risk Youth in Community
In an effort to tackle the issue of drugs and substance abuse in Liberia, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have conducted week-long training and outreach activities for disadvantaged youth otherwise known as at-risk youth in Kakata City, Margibi County.
The training exercise, which took place at the Kakata Administration Building recently, brought together 50 youth including At-Risk Youth from 10 communities across Kakata City.
The training aimed at sensitizing young people on the causes and effects of drugs and substance use and its outcome including the strain and stress it places on society. The training also intended to find means of how drugs addicts can receive help in order to recover.
Among other things, the training exercise also focused on multi-media awareness and sensitization amongst disadvantage youth by training those young people who have been rehabilitated to move into ghettos to explain to their counterparts about the dangers that are associated with drugs.
Speaking at the climax of the training exercise, the Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Program Officer at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Madam Mawen E.J. Morris, said that the program was basically intended to take at-risk youth from the streets and help rehabilitate them.
“We feel the best way to get them off the streets is by using former at-risk youth who understand the life they live. We also feel the former disadvantage youth will serve as vehicles of change and motivation to the current ones,” Madam Morris stated.
The MYS Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Program Officer lauded UNFPA for its tireless support towards funding meaningful programs which seek to change the lives of the young people to make them productive citizens again in society. s
It can be recalled that in October of this year the Youth and Sports Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Program launched and concluded a 30-day free services to at – risk youth in 14 communities in Monrovia. The services included: testing for HIV, counseling, psychosocial counseling.
Other services included: family planning, HIV education due to the increase in HIV and AIDS and medical screening for other illnesses.
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