SAHARA Group, a leading energy conglomerate has announced that it would be dedicating this month to conduct a campaign against drug abuse which claims 11.8million lives annually in the world.
Bethel Obioma, the firm’s Corporate Communications said in a statement that Dar es Salaam-based Sahara Tanzania would also use a hashtag #cleanlovefeb to focus on sensitizing the general public notably the young people on the dangers of substance abuse.
However, it remains unclear on the exact number of people who abuse drugs in the country, but estimates have it that it is a major community and health challenge.
According to Obioma, Sahara initiated the campaign in 2018 as an attempt to shift the focus on Valentine’s Day and commit it to the month-long activity of addressing drugs’ abuse.
“The initiative commenced with the “GreenLove” campaign in February 2018. The focus then was on safeguarding the well-being of the planet earth that is home to almost 8 billion people.
“In 2019 we celebrated #PinkLove to increase cancer awareness. This February, Sahara Group is spreading “#CleanLoveFeb” all around the world, hoping that the message will connect with people caught in the web of substance abuse and above all, deliver an overwhelming zero-tolerance narrative that will make living and staying clean a way of life for everyone,” he said.
Obioma said the energy giant will be working with Dr Tunde Fadipe, a psychiatrist, to engage various stakeholders on the campaign and undertake school activations such as open conversations, essay and chess competitions.
Other activities include awareness walks, press and radio interviews as well as visits to rehabilitation centres.
Figures from the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) show that up to 270 million people, aged 15 – 64 years use psychoactive substances in a year and up to 13 per cent of these people abuse them globally, a figure that surpasses deaths caused by all cancers.
