The Permanent Secretary for Education, Ms. Selina Kuruleca addressed stakeholders at the first ever Drugs and Social Issues Taskforce meeting specifically targeting drugs and other related social problems in our schools. The meeting was supported by UNICEF and held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva
“Our children are the future leaders of our beloved nation. We must ensure that we protect them, educate them to make good decisions and we must have our parents and families on board. Today the discussions focused on better coordination that must go back to the basic unit of any community which is the family.”
The meeting was attended by representatives of all the major faith based organisations, from the Methodists, SDA, Arya Samaj, Muslims, Catholics to the Hare Krishna denomination among others.
Ms. Kuruleca stated that the slogan for Drug awareness programs have ranged from “say no to drugs” launched by Mrs Nancy Reagin in 1986, targeting children and young people to “Not even once.”
“As we talk
today about our interventions, let us come up with our own slogan – one that is fit for purpose for our children, our Fiji.”
“We often ask this question as to why do children take drugs? There are various reasons. Some due to peer pressure, some out of curiosity, that they experiment using drugs, some use drugs as a coping technique to mask the emotional pain, while some follow their role model in the communities.”
“These reasons can be a platform for us all to analyse and diagnose the root cause and discuss possible strategies to address the drug use problem.”
She emphasised that we need to protect our children from this drug scourge and the related health, and social issues.
The Permanent Secretary also expressed her sincere appreciation to a key education Partner, UNICEF Fiji for its support and partnership towards sponsoring the one day workshop.
The participants present at the workshop had a thorough discussion on the statement “I have seen the data, I know the reality, these are our children. What can my organisation, unit, and family do to help our children?” and presented their findings.
In her closing remarks, Ms.Kuruleca thanked all the participants for availing themselves for a successful day of discussions and deliberations on the way forward to addressing the Drug and HIV crisis facing our country, with the emphasis on our children who are attending school.
The Permanent Secretary also shared a Bible verse with everyone to end the session, Esther 4.14 : “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
The drugs and social issues taskforce stakeholders consultation meeting by the Ministry of Education is in line with Hon.Sitiveni Rabuka’s comments today at Albert Park, whereby the PM revealed evidence of drug use at the Hibiscus Festival. The Honourable Prime Minister stressed that there is a need for communities to come together to fight against the issue of drugs, and this will involve parents, students, religious organisations, and other stakeholders.
This meeting is the first in a series of meetings that will focus on colloboration, innovation and working cooperatively with education partners and across ministeries to address the escalating drug issue.
