The National Drug Abuse Control Council, NDACC, has two officers responsible for Belize Rural South; namely, Ms. Kristina Romero, Drug Educator and Ms. Joyce Eliis, Outreach Caseworker. Although, they do not have an office on the island as yet, they are very much committed to helping the residents of San Pedro.
During the past year, they have both visited the schools and assisted them in Drug Prevention Education as well as counseling when it was deemed necessary. However, their work doesn’t end there; and they are now asking the San Pedro community to assist them in making this island as drug-free for our children as possible.
“As we socialize, we hear that our children of today are going down the wrong path, or that the alcohol and other drugs are taking over our children,” commented Kristina Romero, District Coordinator, NDACC, Ministry of Health. “But what are we doing to assuage the situation? As the old saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child” so we must come together to help our youth realize that there is a time and place for everything in life.”
“We are asking for your assistance in making reports to the proper authorities when you see young children buying alcohol or tobacco at stores, or make reports when you see them at nightclubs and bars. Many a times, we talk about it in our cliques but we don’t do anything about it. Parents, businesses, teachers, principals, community on a whole, if we don’t do something about these instances we will end up with a much higher rate of alcoholics and drug abusers on our island.”
“NDACC is here to help as much as we can but we can only do so much… We ask school principals to call us for Drug Education presentations. Please do not wait until situations are out of control to contact us and then expect us to do the impossible. Work with us on a daily basis and although we don’t have offices here, we do come to the island when a school requests us for events. With this said, we thank everyone who has been working alongside us since the beginning of our assignment here in April of 2011.”
For more information on services offered, you can contact us at 227-0528 or ndaccbze@gmail.com.
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