SAVE A TEENAGER
4th pharm D
Alshifa college of Pharmacy
Regular smoking or
excessive drinking in adolescence is a continuing problem in our
society.Children may be introduced to alcohol and other drugs as early as
elementary school.These gate way drugs such as alcohol,tobacco, marijuana
etc..at early age frequently,will lead to both immediate and long term health
consequences as well as affect a person physically,mentally,ecconomically and
socially.The majority of accidents among youths now a days are the result of
alcohol and other drug use.
By taking this into
consideration,the 2nd batch Pharm D students of Alshifa college of
Pharmacy came forward with their new ideas and thoughts to conduct a school
based awareness programme on the topic “SAVE A TEENAGER - against alcohol and
drug abuse among children”.This programme targeted children from class 8 – 12.
The ultimate aim of this programme was to reach children before they are
confronted with the pressure to smoke and to equip them with the skills needed
to say ‘no’ to alcohol and tobacco and there by saving a teenager.
The programme was
inagurated by our principal Dr Suriya Prakash in the campus.It was organized in
a novel method.A formation was created on our theme-SAVE A TEENAGER using
1000’s of cigarette packets. when principal struck one at one end,all other
fell unison as the alphabets in the word read.At that moment the whole campus
took an oath on behalf our principal to quit smoking and drinking in our life
time.After that a live working model experiment demonstrating the ill effects
of smoking was presented infront of the
gathering. The experiment consist of 2 water filled cans representing our lungs
an pleural fluid, 2 tubes representing trachea and bronchi.A tissue paper
representing the cells and tissues of our lungs was introduced into the tube
and a filtered cigarette was lit at the tip of the tube.As the cigarette starts
burning, smoke starts to fill inside the 2 cans.Finally when the whole cigarette
burns,the stain imparted on the tissue paper representing our tissues of lungs
was shown to all gathering and that helped to create greater impact on the viewers regarding the dangerous
effects of smoking more easily and effectively.
Later sessions were little bit
different from usual programmes conducted.This session included a puppet show
that helps to assist and educate young minds regarding the concerns associated
with tobacco and alcohol use. This
informative as well as entertaining show was designed by using hand and rod puppets.The puppet show revolved around
the character ‘Unni’-a high school going boy who initially wanted a bike and
other accessories to show off to his friends that he too had the most modern
gadgets and facilities that world would offer.Gradually he started to fall into
bad companies with drug and alcohol addicts and also began carelessly spending
money,time and energy for it.As time passed he even started overlooking
relations for the pleasures that drugs and alcohol provided.Finally the story
ended with Unni being a reason for a major accident to his sister and thereby
he repented on all that had happened to him.He was then send to a
rehabilitation centre where he finally decided to change his way.
Remaining sessions
were organized at two schools in perinthalmanna named St Mary’s Higher
Secondary School Pariyapuram (morning session) and Presentation English Medium Higher Secondary School Perinthalmanna
(after noon).The shows were conducted similarly but an awareness class with
powerpoint presentation on the various aspects of alcohol,smoking and drug abuse was conducted by our classmate
Nandana,prior to the puppet show.The class was very much helpful in asimilating
into students the simple but true reality of the issue.During our show we also
distributed same pamphlets enumerating the various areas of our topic.
Over all this
education programme played a vital role in raising awareness among youths in
our community and schools by assisting them to lead a healthy,safe and
productive life.We were very privileged to be a part of this yet another health
care programme.If we could save atleast one from hundred, that could be our
success.
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