The conference 'Let's open the roads to a healthier future' was held at the hotel Terme Ilidža on 22 September. The end of the project of a one-year professional training and structural networking for key actors in preventing addiction in BiH 2014-2016 – JUPPO was presented at the conference.
'NARKO NE association was founded in 2002, and since then we have continuously developed projects for preventing addiction in youth work. Due to our focus, we realized that young people must become part of the system and that addiction problem must be solved systematically. That was the main reason for the development of strategic plan to further inform all key actors who work with youth and who have influence in our country. Of course, we will still be there to encourage dialogue to eventually get expert solutions of the problem, because NARKO NE evolves together with young people who know best what they need and they have excellent suggestions how to solve the problem', said the founder and the first director of NARKO NE association.
NARKO NE association has implemented practical projects for 14 years and developed models, methods and materials for addiction prevention that are attractive to young people and that encourage them to make healthy and smart decisions related to addictive behaviors. However, long-term perspective and sustainability of youth work are questionable, because the area of addiction prevention is still not integrated into political, health and youth programs in BiH.
The conference of the JUPPO project – a one-year professional training and structural networking for preventing addiction in BiH was held today. This conference brought together young people and representatives of all levels of government, representatives of NGOs, public institutions and education sector who talked about the importance of work on preventing addiction among children and youth. In that respect, it is important to speak out publicly about addictions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We need to point out that we are working on a large research with a sample of 1,200 children and youth from BiH aged between 13 and 17, and 99.8 % of them have Internet access. All respondents use the Internet more than six hours to chat with friends, listen to music and play games', worryingly noted Executive director of NARKO NE Amir Hasanović.
In the past year and a half, the first steps towards systematic solution were made by implementing the JUPPO project. 14 profiled civil society organizations were included in the network to form key actor who as a partner of authorities will advocate creating program framework for preventing addiction in accordance with real needs of youth in BiH.
I have just finished the performance in which I participated and which is aimed at showing the reality of the problem of addiction in our country. Many people are not aware that young people use drugs and go to betting shops. With the NARKO NE work team, I became additionally informed, I learned more about addiction problems and types of addiction. It is important to point out that with the help of NARKO NE I met a lot of good people and I learned to think properly in the future', said the third grade student from Jovan Dučić grammar school in Trebinje and project participant Špiro Vučinić.
The support in achieving goals was provided by the Board of directors of the project made up of three representatives of the Ministry for human rights and refugees of BiH, the Ministry of security of BiH and the Ministry of civil affairs of BiH.
Only by joint efforts we can ensure the sustainability of work with children and youth in the area of preventing addiction, and we sincerely hope that you will by participating contribute to taking significant steps towards a healthier future of young people in BiH, added all members of NARKO NE.