The ECOWAS Drug Unit conducted a 5-day drug use prevention, sensitisation and awareness program amongst high school students in Bohicon, Benin from 18th to 22nd February, 2019.

The main objective of the school-based drug use prevention and sensitisation program is to build the capacities of school educators for continuous mainstreaming of drug education in school curriculum and instructions. In addition, to raise awareness among high-school students on the consequences of drug use and risky behavior models, and reinforce the need to avoid initiation of drug use. Evidence base drug use prevention

The sensitisation and awareness program is designed to bolster educational outcomes and strengthen youth resilience to illicit drug use while considerably reducing the incidence of drug use and its vulnerabilities amongst high school students, as evidenced in the 2018 West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU) report from Benin.

This public awareness program was targeted at over 1000 high-school students of Djanglamey, Agoue, Gbehouse and the Technical high school of Bohicon. For the sustainability of the sensitization and awareness program,  school peer educators, trainers , representatives from Ministry of Health, Comité Interministériel de Lutte Contre l’Abus des Stupéfiants et des Substance Psychotropes (CILAS) participated in the 5-day program in Bohicon, Benin.