Brasília - Starting this week, five thousand Brazilian public school teachers are participating in a project that will help them keep students away from drugs. The Ministry of Education, in partnership with the University of Brasília (UnB), has prepared a series of 16 videotapes with hints on how to enlighten, dialogue with, and enhance the self-esteem of children and adolescents.

These videos will be presented in workshops, which will also use books and instructions by specialists. Approximately 740 schools from all over the country are participating in the project. The Secretariat of Long-Distance Learning's Director of Production and Training, Carmem Neves, hopes the teachers will adapt the information they receive to the reality of each region.

The project has the backing of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat and the Presidential Office of Institutional Security.

The Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, believes that expanding the collaboration can strengthen the project. "This is a program that acts before drugs become a deep-rooted problem, before they become a matter for the police," Genro contends. "We want this to be a pilot project. We shall observe the way it functions in order to extend it to other schools in the future."

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Juliana Cézar
Translator: David Silberstein
08/24/2004