Schools recognized for antidrug, HIV/AIDS programs

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The principal of Bina Nusantara School, Gregory C. Mowday, proudly explains how the school has integrated its anti-drug program into the students' daily subjects.

"A chemistry teacher, for example, will touch upon drugs and their dangers to the body when he or she is explaining related topics. We may be the only school that has integrated an anti- drug campaign into our daily curriculum," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the World AIDS Day Fund-Raising Charity Dinner hosted by Rotary Club Jakarta Sentral on Tuesday evening.

Since 1998, the school has required all new students and their parents to sign an agreement to comply with its drug policy. This policy includes random drug tests on students, unannounced searches of students' bags and counseling for students found to be using drugs.

Bina Nusantara was one of three schools in the capital recognized by Rotary Club Jakarta, UNICEF and Yayasan Harapan Permata Hati (Yakita), a non-governmental organization involved in drug prevention and rehabilitation, for their anti-drug campaigns.

The two other schools were Al Izhar and BPK Penabur, which also require students and their parents to sign agreements promising to submit to random drug tests and searches. The schools also have established special task forces to oversee their anti-drug programs.

Rotary Club Jakarta Sentral president Murray J. Samuel said the organization had worked with Yakita over the past year to train hundreds of teachers from 57 schools in Greater Jakarta to provide help to students with drug problems.

"The objective of the training is to detect and prevent drug abuse as early as possible, because the schools are required to include in their policies preventive measures," he said.

Although the event on Tuesday was the first of its kind, Rotary Club Jakarta hopes to make these awards an annual event in order to encourage more schools to adopt anti-drug policies.

"We are optimistic that 157 schools will compete next year. Later, we hope all schools nationwide will have similar policies to fight drugs, as supported by the education ministry," Samuel said.

David Djaelani Gordon of Yakita said that in addition to cooperating with Rotary Club Jakarta to train teachers, the foundation also collaborated with the Ford Foundation to educate 15,000 students in Greater Jakarta, West Java, South Sulawesi and Bali about the dangers of drugs.

"We hope we can train more students across the country so the fight against drugs will be more effective," he said.

It is estimated that nationwide about three million people between the ages of 16 and 25 have used drugs. Some one million of these live in Greater Jakarta.