Major substance abuse awareness campaign launched in schools
This comes after the alleged suicides of more than 40 learners in the province since the beginning of the 2023 academic year.
The Gauteng Department of Social Development has launched a major awareness programme and deployed 500 Ke Moja coaches to different schools throughout the province in what is considered a major effort to assist with substance abuse.
This comes after the alleged suicide of over 40 learners in Gauteng since the beginning of the 2023 academic year.
Gauteng MEC for Education Matome Chiloane welcomed the deployment of Ke Moja coaches and reiterated that it will deal with addressing the root causes of such actions.
In a statement issued this week, Chiloane said suicide was a bleak reality and one of the leading causes of death among young people, and that learners in schools are confronted by a variety of problems, including drugs and substance abuse, which leaves them feeling vulnerable, hopeless, and overwhelmed.
Gauteng Department of Social Development’s Phetoho Maja said that the coaches will have a broader reach in schools.
“The Ke Moja coaches and co-ordinators will play a critical role in bringing about substance abuse prevention programmes to more than seven hundred schools in Gauteng. This includes more than 100 puppet coaches who specialise in using puppetry as a creative tool to convey messages and more than 100 alternative coaches who are targeting out-of-school youth through poetry, dance, music, drama and physical fitness.
“In addition to this, more than forty co-ordinators will play a decisive role in the overall co-ordination of the programme in 23 NGOs,” said Maja.
He added, ‘Ke Moja’ which means ‘I am fine without Drugs’, is a brand name for the South African government geared towards drug and substance abuse prevention.
Ke Moja was launched by former Minister of Social Development, the late Zola Skweyiya to focus on strengthening and building capacity, self-reliance and resilience of young people while addressing individual, environmental and societal factors to create conditions that enhance wellness and ultimately prevent social challenges or risks.
The programme is implemented mainly in primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions.
It aims at sustaining a drug-free environment in which learners and the youth enjoy their freedom by developing intellectually, socially, economically, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
