Youth participation vital for alcohol use prevention

COLOMBO: Development targets are fast achieved in a community where youth are actively involved in the prevention of alcohol use, said National Programme Manager FORUT, Sri Lanka Sakya Nanayakkara.

“Promoters of alcohol have identified youth and children as special targets. Youth have the power to determine the progress of the community. This could be transferred to alcohol as well.

Evidence world over suggests that drug prevention tasks are valuable tools for youth development and when properly implemented, development targets are easily achieved and the development of young men and women becomes more meaningful,” she said.

She was speaking at a two-day National Conference on “Youth, Development and Alcohol” at the Mahaweli Center auditorium, Colombo recently.

The conference focused on a series of topics related to youth, development and alcohol, with the active participation of over 250 youth and officials of Non Governmental Organisations and Government Ministries.

Prof. Diyanath Samarasinghe delivered the keynote address at the event. S. Pitigala, Deputy Director, Alcohol and Drug Prevention Unit, Ministry of Education, P. Kodituwakku, Secretary Religious Affairs and Moral Upliftment/Chief Officer of the Governments “Mathata Thitha” operations committee, Terje Heggernes, Resident Representative - FORUT Sri Lanka and Pubudu Sumanasekera of ADIC also addressed the participants.

The conference also focused on key areas such as, identifying effective approaches in working with youth, monitoring of youth related alcohol prevention activities, indicators to measure change within communities and identifying the role of youth organisations in reducing alcohol problems within communities.

The preparation and presentation of a communique on alcohol and youth development also took place.