What does "Youth Action" mean for the UNODC Youth Initiative? It strives for active youth engagement and activities to empower youth on substance use prevention and health promotion.
This week, we would like to introduce commending contributions from Luis Pacheco, a Youth Forum alumnus from Mexico. After participating in the UNODC Youth Forum 2022, Luis joined the Mexican Youth Institute (Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud; IMJUVE) as a national consultant for his state, Campeche, where he advocated the monitoring of public youth policies and worked on prevention activities amongst young people. Through these developments, Luis had the opportunity to obtain deeper insights into substance use prevention, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Health as well as with the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP).
With the new knowledge and experience gained, Luis became more interested and committed to supporting vulnerable populations in society through prevention efforts.
The question he asked himself was how he could best share the knowledge he had learned about prevention with other youth, in an understandable manner. With these goals, “Huellas de Emociones” was born, a project that utilized comics to disseminate prevention messages. Comics containing information on substance use prevention were disseminated to young people and facilitated in acquiring their full attention through the illustrations. Youth were able to identify, understand, and thus become sensitized on the topic at hand.
The project was disseminated throughout schools in southern Mexico, mainly in the state of Campeche, and was implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to promote this initiative. 3,000 youth were reached through this project, and Luis’s efforts have been recognized through the awarding of the National Medal Youth for Pacification by the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection.
As a project led by a young leader to support other youth, and a youth success story, we sincerely congratulate Luis on his great achievements made in his community!
