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Partners in Prevention Regional Project Newsletter, Volume 1, Issue 1

Welcome to the first Edition of the Newsletter targeting the East African population

Hello East Africa, Greetings from Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL). Welcome to this

maiden issue of the Drug Abuse Prevention E-Newsletter which comes with rich information on

developments related to drug abuse prevention in the East African region. This newsletter shall

be compiled every two months with the aim of disseminating drug abuse prevention information

interventions among NGOs and other stakeholders with similar interests. Members in the EA

region are encouraged to write and submit articles relating to their work, upcoming events, case

studies and any other useful information and forward the information to the UYDEL secretariat

for consideration. This maiden issue is a summary report of achievements realized in the Partners

in Prevention Regional Project to date. The subsequent issues shall focus more drug abuse

related issues in the region putting particular emphasis on articles, fellowships, conferences,

research, and projects contributed by members. It is anticipated that this newsletter shall

facilitate networking; shall provide a platform for information sharing and capacity building

among partner’s in the East African region.

Introduction:

UYDEL in collaboration with Mentor Foundation International, which is an international non-

government organization working in the field of drug abuse prevention and health promotion, is

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implementing a Drug Abuse Partners in Prevention Regional Project in Uganda, Kenya and

Tanzania from September 2010 to September 2012. This project aims at developing capacity of

stakeholders in promoting the peer to peer drug abuse prevention approach among young people.

In order to develop and sustain the work that was made possible through the Mentor Award and

to ensure that this programme and the UYDEL organisation is able to develop its capacity and

competence as a lead agency for prevention focussed work in Uganda and the East African

region, with the following achievements so far:

1. The preparation and printing of advocacy materials linked to the project and the

communicating the focus of UYDEL’s prevention activities.

4,000 posters, 9 pieces of PVC pull up banners, 1,500 t-shirts, 14,900 stickers were produced

and distributed to NGOs (peer educators and staff) that have participated in the peer to peer

review meetings; government institutions, schools, Health centers and participants of the

national drug abuse prevention workshops in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

Samples of posters produced under the Partners in Prevention Project

1 (a) Three national one day workshops on “best practice in prevention” undertaken by

Mentor and UYDEL staff.

Three national one day workshops on “best practice in prevention” were undertaken by Mentor

and UYDEL on 18th, 19th and 21st October 2011 in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania respectively.

The workshops were targeted and attended by 92 participants in Uganda, 64 participants in

Kenya and 52 participants in Tanzania that included NGO workers, social services, school

teachers, Government workers, parents, health workers, Local Council authorities, sports bodies,

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public health professionals, Police/Law Enforcement Officers and Journalists. The above

categories of people were targeted because these are the ultimate direct beneficiaries who are

either involved in direct implementation of drug abuse interventions, contribute to law

enforcement or contribute to policy making processes that have a bearing on drug abuse

prevention initiatives.

Mr. Kasirye Rogers –UYDEL Executive Director and Prof. Ken Winters giving their lectures during the national

drug abuse prevention workshops in Kenya and Uganda respectively

Five major presentations and three feedback sessions were made in all the countries on the

following issues: Regional efforts to combat substance abuse among young people in Eastern

Africa in Kenya; The IOGT work/ programs in the East African Region; Best practice principles

for drug abuse prevention; Adolescent brain development and implications for prevention; The

process of identifying young people’s needs; Peer to peer prevention approaches and working

with prevention smart parents.

Participants at the national drug abuse prevention workshops in Uganda and Kenya rspectively

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The workshops identified the following key issues:

1. A plan for practice in peer to peer and parent focused drug abuse prevention among youngpeople.

2. Ways of developing a regional network for prevention activities on drugs and substanceabuse.

3. An action plan for development of an East African Network for prevention of drug abuse.

4. Creation of a discussion forum/list for partners in the East African region to share

information, skills, knowledge, best practices, upcoming events, ask questions and build

capacity of other partners in drug abuse prevention.

1(b) Providing a website component and a Newsletter targeted at the East African

population and in particular education and youth agencies, professionals, parents and

carers that has a focus on prevention work in the East African region.

UYDEL contracted a company that re-designed and updated the UYDEL website; trained two

staff in uploading of articles on the website and the website hosting package was upgraded from

silver to Platinum thus increasing our bandwidth and disk space. This is aimed at improving the

visibility of UYDEL work and programmes in terms of marketing, branding to facilitate

information sharing with other partners in the East African region. The website and Newsletter

will provide information on prevention, specific prevention resources such as the peer to peer

programme and Prevention Smart Parents and provide guidance as to how people can be trained

and gain access to being involved in such programmes. See www.uydel.org

1(c) Revising and producing the peer to peer manual to ensure its relevance, sound

information and availability for the East African region.

UYDEL printed 7,500 hard copies of the Peer to Peer User Guide. Copies have been distributed

to trained UYDEL staff and staff of other partner NGOs in the East African region involved in

drug abuse prevention initiatives, teachers, Health workers, participants that attended the national

drug abuse prevention workshops in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

1(d).Producing a hard copy version of the Prevention Smart Parents programme for use by

those with no computer or internet access.

A technical working committee reviewed the guide to adapt it to the East African context. The

hard copies were printed and disseminated to key people and stakeholders in Uganda, Kenya and

Tanzania. There is a demand for training of trainers to help ensure the Peer to Peer manual and

Prevention Smart Parents is used appropriately with the intended target groups.

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UYDEL resource center at Masooli center

2. Dissemination of the peer to peer approach and other best practices for prevention to

other agencies working in the field of prevention within Uganda and the East African

region through workshops and supporting communication material.

The peer to peer training approach aims at influencing the trained peer educators to act ascommunity resource persons. This approach creates a multiplier effect in that each peer educatorreaches out to at least 10 peers implying that 625 trained peers x 10 peers = 6,250 young peoplereached with drug and substance abuse prevention messages. The categories of young peopletrained in peer to peer approaches were juvenile delinquents/young people in conflict with thelaw, slum youths, street children, orphans, victims of trafficking, children commercially sexuallyexploited, domestic service workers and HIV/AIDS affected young people. Majority of youthswere drug users or were susceptible to drug use given the slum environments where they reside.The slum environments are characterized with high levels of unemployment, rampant gamblingpractices, poor law enforcement mechanisms, homeless out of school youths, drug usergroups/gangs, high crime rates including rape, defilement, and thefts, commercial sex which areall fuelled by drug and substance abuse.

A UYDEL social worker conducting a life skills session with young people at Masooli center

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3. Facilitating UYDEL to become a formal Mentor “partner in prevention” through

attaining affiliated status based on sound international principles and standards for

operating as an effective and efficient prevention organisation.

The Mentor SAN team are mentoring and building capacity of UYDEL in assessment and

developing quality standard criteria. Preparatory meetings were held between Mentor team (Jeff

Lee, Prof. Ken Winters and Dr. Richard Mackenzie) and UYDEL staff in January 2011 in

Kampala. Discussions on the implementation and action plans for the Partners in Prevention

project were deliberated and a timeline of activities was generated and shared among the

members.

The Mentor team having discussions with UYDEL senior staff during one their capacity

assessment meetings in Kampala

A comprehensive internal needs assessment was undertaken and the Mentor team of

professionals offered a process of action to help build and develop competency in those areas

identified as most needed. This was undertaken through email and conference calls and followed

up with Staff development workshops at each visit. Further areas for development have been

identified for the final phase of the project. The Mentor team is working with the UYDEL team

to develop training guides and materials to address the areas of need to ensure quality standards.

Upcoming Events

The 10th Biennial International Conference on Drugs, Alcohol and Society in Africa organised by

CRISA Abuja Nigeria, 11th- 12th July 2012. Partners are encouraged to submit abstracts.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16th March 2012

For more information contact: Prof. Isidore Obot; Email: obotis@gmail.com; www.crisanet.org

For more information, contact

Email: uydel@uydel.org

Telephone: +256 414 530353

Website: www.uydel.org

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Note: Members are also encouraged to subscribe to the Mentor Prevention update

(www.mentorfoundation.org/prevention-update) to receive the monthly Mentor Newsletter for

information sharing and receiving current updates about drug prevention globally. Partners could

learn best practices which can be replicated in the EA region.

Please feel free to add interested partners in the mailing list so that also receive the subsequent

Newsletter editions.