June is a month of many awareness, International Children’s month, Youth Month and National Drug Awareness Week of which will be in the next few weeks.
A lot of young people in South Africa starting from the age of 11-25years are abusing drugs. As early as a child is in Primary, they are already exposed to these illegal substances. It has been estimated that 15 percent of our population have a drug problem.
the factors that influence drug taking include peer pressure, truancy, child neglect, abuse and emotional stress and most common in young adults, is unemployment.
Often young people who struggle with an active addiction tend to struggle with unemployment as well.
Unemployment has acted as the driving force to addiction in many communities. Especially if you are your family’s only hope out of poverty.
And unfortunately somehow substance abuse has become a trend in South Africa. Instead of pulling thr to cope with economically and emotionally stress often the solution for many young people are drugs and alcohol.
The younger children are modelling themselves after the older ones who are using drugs. And this has a devastating outcomes to their future and health.
Pretoria has a lot of places that helps vulnerable youth, one of them being PEN YOUTH PROGRAM, situated in the heart of Pretoria’s CBD in Sunnyside.
To get more information about PEN’s program visit their website:
tel: 0123236688
email: info@pen.org.za
125 Steve Biko Rd
Sunnyside, Pretoria, 0002
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