Staff Reporter
Government is stepping up efforts to combat drug and substance abuse through a nationwide training programme targeting community-level committees from district to village level.
The programme seeks to equip committee members with the knowledge and skills needed to coordinate prevention and response initiatives as authorities intensify efforts to address the growing problem.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Drug and Substance Abuse Training of Trainers programme in Kwekwe, District Development Coordinator Fortune Mpungu said the exercise was cascading from national to grassroots structures to ensure a coordinated response.
Mpungu said provincial-level training had already been conducted, with provincial committee members now training their district counterparts before the programme moves to ward and village levels.
“The objective is to ensure that we train all the committees up to village level. Soon after this, we shall be training the ward-level drug and substance abuse committees before moving to the village committees,” he said.
He said the initiative was aimed at strengthening the capacity of community structures to respond to the rising cases of drug and substance abuse across the country.
Mpungu said the programme would bring together various stakeholders, including traditional leaders, churches and other community representatives, to ensure a collective approach to tackling the problem.
“We intend to incorporate all these stakeholders in the fight against drug and substance abuse in the spirit of leaving no one and no place behind,” he said.
The training programme is part of broader government efforts to strengthen community participation in drug and substance abuse prevention and response.
