Mobilizing youth vs. alcohol and substance abuse

Ngarchelong State, through support of the Council of Chiefs and the Council on Substance Abuse Prevention, has initiated its efforts towards preventing its youth from using alcohol, illicit drugs, and abusing other chemical substances.According to Dwelyne Ngirailild, Ngarchelong State representative to SIG and coordinator of the state’s youth programs this summer, she, two state employees, a Ngarchelong Elementary School staff, and a volunteer parent have began working with Ngarchelong’s youth ranging between the age of 12 and 20 through selected activities geared towards getting the youth to recognize and internalize the negative effects of alcohol and drug use and abuse.Ngirailild said that last Saturday, the youth were invited to Bai Mengellakl, Ngarchelong to take part in an open forum in which the youth identified and discussed problems associated with alcohol and substance abuse – as they perceive them to be – and in the process, come up with a list of possible solutions to existing problems and strategies through which young people could use to avoid having to deal with similar problems.“The participants were very candid. They know of the existing problems associated with alcohol and drug use and abuse,” Ngirailild said. “Many had indicated that use of alcohol and drugs is an individual choice coerced by the environment that one is in.  To solve most of the problems, they say, means a thorough clean up of the youth environments.”According to Ngirailild, the group went on a field trip to Koror Jail and Behavioral Health on Wednesday as part of the initial stages of the program.While at the Koror Jail, Officer Marlon Bechab escorted the youth on a tour of the entire jail.  During the tour, he explained the process through which a person goes through prior to being jailed.According to Ngirailild, the Chief of Jail, Officer Julio Omtei Ringang, took time to talk the youth. Ringang told the youth that choosing to make the right choice is the best choice.  He compared alcohol and drug use to a poisonous snake.  He said that people who use abuse alcohol and drugs are well aware of the effects, but they choose to use them anyway – as with a poisonous snake, no matter how many times people are told to avoid them, there will always be people who choose to take risks and end up bitten.  He told the youth to choose not to be bitten.The youth also had an opportunity to hear sincere testimonies of two inmates – Frankie Borja and Dwayne Ngirailild.  The inmates openly disclosed how they ended up in Koror Jail and described prison life to the youth.  They pleaded with the youth to “keep on the right track” and stay “off the bad stuff.”  The inmates willingly answered all of the questions that the youth raised regarding their personal lives.On their visit to behavioral health, Ms. Everlyne Blelai, a staff of Division Behavioral Health (DBH), showed them all of the division’s facilities and their functions.Afterwards, Ngirailild said, Dr. Sylvia M. Wally, Chief of DBH, took an hour of her time to personally conduct counseling workshop for the youth on the following: peer to peer counseling; life skills, preventing use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs; preventing self-inflicting harm; and developing resiliency to fight and cope with challenges in their lives.According to Ngirailild, the youth participants admitted after the visit to the jail and the workshop with Dr. Wally that they are now well aware of all that could be consequences if they choose to use alcohol or drugs.  Further, all of them said that they would try as much as they can to keep away from alcohol and drugs; and to make all possible attempts to help their peers do the same.The group ended their trip with a visit to the Belau National Museum.