Vulnerabilities to substance use can arise from an interaction of complex factors at both the individual and environmental level, such as personality traits, mental health disorders, family neglect and abuse, poor attachment to school and community, social norms and environments conducive to substance use, etc. Because they are embedded in different settings and environments, building resilience against such risk factors requires addressing and delivering interventions at multiple settings and targeting relevant ages, and levels of risk. Thus, an effective drug prevention strategy cannot be developed nor implemented in isolation, and should have an integrated range of interventions.
The Development & Integrity Intervention Goal Foundation (DIG Foundation) is a DAPC grantee from Nigeria that strived to address different target populations and settings through their project, Intensive Advocacy and Mobilization for Drug Free Actions (IAM4DFA) in Nigeria. Project IAM4DFA aimed to prevent drug use amongst youth and focused on strengthening capacity of community stakeholders, caregivers/parents, and community-based organizations (CBOs) in response to drug use issues in the targeted setting of Mining host communities. DIG Foundation actively involved youth in their project, by training youth to be peer educators for cascade trainings to their fellow peers. In addition, they fostered community-led approaches and sensitized the importance of drug use prevention and care, which involved interactive radio programs, open community meetings, parents/caregiver sessions, and commemoration of World Drug Day 2022. A special thanks goes to DIG Foundation for reaching diverse audiences and settings that affect both micro- and macro-environments, which ultimately influence the healthy development of children and youth.
Projects funded by the DAPC grant are made possible by the generous donation from the Drug Abuse Prevention Center (DAPC) in Japan. DAPC grants have the potential to reach hard-to-reach places in the world through grant awarding to NGOs and CBOs in low- and middle-income countries working to promote and support substance use prevention and youth empowerment.
