Say no, and kick a bad habit

MBOMBELA – Sanca Lowveld presented its Kick the Habit campaign at Riverside Mall on Saturday, ahead of the organisation’s Drug Addiction Awareness Week.

Sanca is raising awareness at various venues across the city this week as part of Youth Month.

On Saturday – when the awareness week commenced – Sanca Lowveld director, Marina Erasmus and administrative bookkeeper, Stephanie Oosthuizen handed out pamphlets to the public at their stand in the mall.

“We started last Monday with the build-up activities for the international day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. That day is especially aimed at creating awareness on the dangers of addiction and the trafficking of substances,” Erasmus said.

This past week they have been in all the big shopping centres and small spaza shops in the community to tell people how to access their services in Hope Street.

“We are officially starting this week with other stakeholders. We will be going out to do some talks at clinics and with our government where they need our services. This is our busiest time of the year that we create awareness in our communities.”

This awareness week’s theme, as determined by the United Nations, is to “kick the habit” and to encourage people to give something up for the week, to create awareness among people who don’t suffer from addiction about just how hard it is to break a habit.

“Just for one week, say no to something that you are sort of addicted to, like sugar, cigarettes or cut down on your coffee, whatever. One woman told me it would be Facebook, another said they always eat something before they go to bed, which was not good for their health. Another said bread. Cut down on something or leave it for a week and see what your reaction towards something is.

“It is easy to tell someone else, ‘just stop doing the drugs’, but it is not easy. Their brains get wired to certain patterns, and to break a pattern is not that easy.”