The competition is organized by the European Academy of Yuste Foundation and the Department of Social Affairs of the Town Council of Navalmoral de la Mata
The fourth-year pupils of Fuente de Roniel School in Fuente del Maestre have reached the final of the 7th regional seminar on the prevention of drug abuse among Extremadura teenagers titled “Young people speak: from local to European strategy” held this morning at the House of Culture in Navalmoral de la Mata.
The semi-final in the province of Badajoz brought together the above school and Virgen de Gracia School in Oliva de la Frontera, as the third, Albarregas School in the city of Mérida, turned down the chance to take part a few days before the competition was held. The jury, made up of the two delegates from the Foundation for Help Against Drug Addiction in the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz, Delicia Prieto and Mónica Millán, congratulated both schools on their “clear presentations and the messages sent out to young people”. In addition, they congratulated the pupils, tutors, educators and counsellors for participating in the program. As for the project prepared by Fuente de Roniel School, they highlighted “the presentation of realistic leisure situations among young people, the inclusion of interviews, proposals for alternatives in leisure time and clear and realistic examples of what can happen when drugs are consumed”. With regard to the project of Virgen de Gracia School, they pointed to the video submitted in which a young woman pretends to take substances in different places, with the rejection that this provokes in the people around her, as well as the “experiment put forward, the advertising and the recommendations proposed”.
The final will be held in May between Fuente de Roniel School and Albalat School in Navalmoral de la Mata.
The competition consists of the presentation of a project prepared by the pupils of each school with the help of their teachers, addressing issues such as the risks of recreational drug use, the reasons for consumption, the impact on youth people, the consequences over time, European policies and prevention strategies at regional, national and European levels. Finally, the groups have to make proposals to prevent drug abuse among teenagers. The pupils’ presentations must be supported by a slide show, which can be linked to any kind of video, photos, music, recording or any type of artistic expression chosen by the group.
The competition, which has run for seven years without interruption, has achieved the participation of 42 schools in the region, directly involving more than 1,000 pupils and a further 1,500 indirectly.
It should be noted that several new features have been incorporated this year with respect to previous ones in order to give the project a more European dimension. It has thus enjoyed the collaboration of the European Commission, which has provided promotional material on European integration and the functioning of the institutions, distributed around the six selected schools, with the information being complemented by a videoconference between each school and the representative of the Foundation in Brussels and a talk on European prevention policies given by the delegates of the Foundation for Help Against Drug Addiction in Extremadura.
Contextualization
The Competition for Secondary Schools which forms part of the 7th Regional Program on the Prevention of Drug Abuse in the Leisure and Free Time of Extremadura Teenagers was launched in 2010 as an initiative of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation and the Department of Social Affairs of the Town Council of Navalmoral de la Mata in order to give the project a regional scope, although the Town Council had organized it at a local level since 2006.
This activity aims to promote intervention processes aimed at eradicating, increasing awareness of and preventing the causes of drug abuse. Furthermore, it seeks the involvement of young people by means of a participatory and direct dynamic, as the pupils themselves, together with their tutors, produce the work, thereby understanding the harmful effects of drug abuse.
