EPDI Nigeria joins in tackling substance abuse

#ASAP – anti-substance abuse project Lagos round-table event

February 28, 2019 was a colourful and memorable day for EPDI Nigeria at the Civic Centre, Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, venue of the Lagos Roundtable Event for the Anti-Substance Abuse Project organized by MTNASAP FOUNDATION with a slogan #Drug Abuse is One Chance Bus.

#ASAP is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral initiative focused on advocacy, awareness creation and education for behaviour change aimed at discouraging first-time use and dependency on drugs and harmful substances.

The state-wide conference was convened to discuss opportunities and jointly commit to a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral platform for collaboration and impact. All core and sub-stakeholder groups including NGOs, Secondary Schools, various regulatory and policy-making institutions and experts actively working in the substance use ecosystem were in attendance.

One of the highlights at the event was a movie presentation which enlightened participants on the dangers of drug and substance. The movie was well put together and stakeholders donated towards the project. ‘Say No to Drugs Abuse’ is everyone’s responsibility beginning from home i.e. the Family, Church, Community leaders and the government.

There was a road walk on March 2, 2019 from Ndubuisi park Alausa to Allen Round About, Ikeja for the purpose of creating awareness on the street and on social media

Life skills and sexuality education for Melville college, Ojodu-Berger, Lagos

The essence of this program is to equip the students with knowledge and skills that will enable them develop and release their potentials for a purposeful and fulfilling lives.

We had two meetings where we introduced EPDI as an NGO and the objectives of the program with them, definition of life skills and sexuality, three stages of a human being and characteristics of the adolescent stage the students are in and changes (development) taking place in them – spiritual, physical, mental/moral and social/emotional development.

We treated “Life is an Adventure” in the second meeting comparing adolescence to a journey one has never gone before and the need for proper preparation, the right tools/techniques/skills and the right guide for clear and right directions that will lead them to have fulfilling lives.

A total of eighty-five students (27 males and 58 female) attended the first meeting while fifty (50) were present in the second meeting.

Catch them young with Mepol Nursery & Primary School, Ojodu, Lagos

We visited the school twice also this term and treated two topics namely: Love and Chastity. The essence of these topics is to enable the children know what genuine love is and be able to walk in love and show love to one another; to decipher between true/genuine love and lust, and to keep themselves from being defiled or molested by paedophiles. They were also reminded of the MAIN rules we discussed previously. It was quite encouraging that many of them still remember what they are.

Cross section of the teachers
We shall resume in April when the schools resume from Easter break.


This post was written for ICAI’s monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, April 2019.