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– Aims at raising awareness on dangers of tobacco and alcoholWith the aim of sensitising in-school youths to the dangers associated with the use of tobacco and alcohol, the Ministry of Health‘s Adolescent and Youth Health and Wellness Unit yesterday launched a National Secondary  Schools Tobacco and Alcohol debating competition.Under the theme ‘Think Health not Drugs’, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Health, Hydar Ally, introduced the innovative venture.  He said that it has been a major concern to the Ministry that too many young people are getting involved in activities that are predicated on the use of drugs.“We feel that the time has come for us to raise the level of awareness to make our young people much more sensitive about the dangers of drug use and alcohol.”According to Ally, the venture comes as an initiative which is being undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and will see the involvement of school children as well as teachers and other education officials.The collaboration with the education sector, he said, has been good so far as evident by the Education Ministry’s decision to team up with the Health Ministry to declare schools and other public educational facilities, including the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen and Tain campuses and the Cyril Potter College of Education smoke free zones.“We have a very good collaboration so far in this area and so we are trying to get our young people to be even more educated and aware.” The Permanent Secretary anticipates that with the new venture in motion positive behavioural changes could be realised among young people from an early age.“Our target group is youths in their early and formative years and research has found that most people who use drugs start at a very early age. So in essence we are hoping to curb drug use by introducing this programme.”According to Dr Marcia Paltoo, who has responsibility for the Adolescent and Youth Health and Wellness Unit, this is the first time that the Health Ministry has embarked on such a programme in a bid to address the problem of substance abuse.“We want to educate students about the harmful uses of tobacco and alcohol as part of our prevention programme…We expect that through the debating competition whereby students will be engaged in research they will be able to increase their own knowledge as well as their peers.”Edutainment Officer within the Ministry of Health, Kardella Hamilton, said that the competition will start during the second week of next month and will continue for six weeks.Sixteen schools from Regions Two, Three, Six and Ten, have already been identified to participate in the competition.The first place school,Cheap NFL Jerseys, she said, will receive a desktop computer; the second place school will receive a $60,000 book voucher for the school’s library while the third place school will secure a trophy.Additionally, each of the students from the winning schools will be presented with a $10,000 gift voucher redeemable at Austin’s Book Store.According to Hamilton, the objective of the competition is to encourage the participants to be engaged in a fun and innovative educational exercise which will be of great benefit to their lives, their peers and the nation as a whole.“It is hoped that the information disseminated through the competition will positively impact behavioural patterns in the target population which is 10 to 14 years old,” Hamilton added.