March 2011

Two staff members of the Bonus Pastor Foundation talked about the theme of addiction, particularly alcohol and drug abuse, to young students in Sovata.

Thirty pupils, the classes of teachers Delinke Ágoston and Enikő Kincses, of the Domokos Kázmér Vocational High School in Sovata, attended a prevention program dealing with the topic of addiction. At the invitation of Attila Szabó and László Nagy, workers at the Family Service Alba Iulia Caritas organization, social worker Éva Adorján and psychologist Éva Bartha from the Ozd Drug Therapy Centre (of the Bonus Pastor Foundation) held a two-hour workshop on the topic.

The program was aimed at a community which is potentially exposed to the danger of addictions, who – through the pressure of their friends or peer groups – try out various substances. The general aims of the program were to clarify the meaning of addiction, prevent drug usage, identify different types of addiction, present the long term consequences and the risks of usage and to summarize the possibilities of intervention.

The program was practical, being led by competent specialists using a psychologically based approach. The students were divided into small groups, where they collected and analyzed the possible reasons for substance abuse, explanations, presumed advantages, the complex risks, disadvantages and long and short term effects, even mentioning why it is worthwhile to abstain from excessive consumption of alcohol.

There were also two residents from the Therapy Centre whom the youngsters could ask about the traps of abusing substances, so seeing it through the eyes of recovering alcoholics and drug abusers. The core message of the program was supported by Robi’s and Antal’s words (names changed at their request), and the pupils listened to them with increased interest. Maybe the most thought-provoking message was that uncontrolled addiction can cause a several hundred million lei (tens of thousands in new lej) debt or one can even become homeless – as the case of the two young men showed, who had been attending the long term therapy program.