Narconon Ghana Drug Educator Travels to Liberia to Spread Drug-Free Message
(PRWEB) August 03, 2015 -- Joe Appiah has long been a Narconon drug prevention specialist working with youth in Ghana. But in the last few years, he has extended his help into Liberia, a country struggling with high rates of drug abuse and addiction. Child soldiers – both male and female – that fought through Liberia's fourteen years of civil war have re-entered civilian life but have trouble dealing with the atrocities they witnessed, committed or suffered from. Many rely on drugs or alcohol to get through their days. When the drug abuse requires needles, then the spread of HIV, hepatitis and even ebola can follow.
To create a better situation for these former child soldiers and all of today's youth, Joe Appiah has traveled multiple times to Liberia to promote drug-free lives. "About eighty percent of the former child soldiers are addicted to drugs or alcohol, so it is very important to me to travel from my home to help them come off these drugs," he said. "When they stop using drugs, diseases are not spread as quickly so we are also helping to reduce these serious illnesses."
This June, Appiah organized a drug-free event in the Liberian capital city of Monrovia, in association with the Liberian Drugs Enforcement Administration. Together, Joe, his group of volunteers and Liberian DEA celebrated the United Nations Day Against Drug Abuse and International Trafficking on June 26, 2015. After a march through the streets carrying a banner with an anti-drug message, the group met at the William V. S. Tubman High School for a community meeting on how to fight drug abuse. Appiah suited up his volunteers with t-shirts that read "Let's develop our lives, our communities, our identities without drugs."
"Every anti-drug message helps push back against the idea that drug use is an acceptable way to deal with problems in life," said Clark Carr, president of Narconon International in Los Angeles. "We appreciate the work done by our drug prevention specialists in these far-off corners of the world, working hard to make their countries safer places for children to grow up."
Since 1966, Narconon rehabilitation centers around the world have been helping the addicted build new, sober lives for themselves. There are some fifty Narconon rehabilitation centers located on six continents and millions of children have been reached with the Narconon anti-drug curriculum. For more information on Narconon visit http://www.narconon.org.
Clark Carr, Narconon International, http://www.narconon.org, +1 323-962-2404, [email protected]
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