Pemadam programmes see 2-fold increase in students
Published on: Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: More and more students are getting into the Malaysian Drug Prevention Association (Pemadam) mix as efforts continue to raise awareness of the dangers of drug abuse.Last year saw a more than two-fold increase with 10,974 students from both primary and secondary schools participating in programmes organised by Pemadam.Kota Kinabalu Pemadam Chairman Datuk Yeo Boon Hai said they came from 12 primary schools and eight secondary schools throughout Sabah.
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"It involved 5,195 primary students and 5,779 secondary students which is a glaring increase compared to 2013 which only involved about 4,384 students."We also structured a programme called Cekal for higher education institutes which we organised at Polyteknik Kota Kinabalu, which saw about 1, 000 students involved."Yeo said the programmes were aimed at increasing the awareness and knowledge of students and working adults alike of the dangers of drug abuse and that they will continue to carry out further programmes in schools and education institutes.He said this at the Kota Kinabalu Pemadam 18th Annual General Meeting at City Hall, Tuesday.
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Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir, who officiated at the meeting, said according to statistics from the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), Sabah recorded 650 drug addicts last year with 423 being new cases. "Drug abuse is one of the challenges that we all face. As part of society, it is our duty to work together to curtail this problem. The easiest thing we can do is by ensuring our children, families, friends and neighbours are aware of the dangers.
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