Rwanda National Police

Ngoma District has started an awareness campaign aimed at sensitizing and educating especially the young people on dangers of using illicit substances.

The campaign that mainly targets schools is part of the national ongoing efforts to prevent new users and ultimately to kill the local market.

It is also aimed at identifying and rehabilitating addicts as well as either ensuring that they go back to school or be equipped with vocational skills under the National Rehabilitation Services (NRS) programme.

The campaign is conducted jointly the Ngoma District Police Unit (DPU), NRS, local leaders and schools.

On August 29, the outreach programme was held in Kibungo Sector where about 3000 students of  GS Kabare, GS Gahima, GS Kabeza ,GS Kibungo A and GS ASPEK converged.

Ngoma, although is used as a market, it is largely used as a transit route for drug traffickers from Tanzania through the border district of Kirehe.

The acting District Police Commander (DPC) of Ngoma, Chief Inspector of police (CIP) Jean Paul Dominique Nkurunziza, while speaking to students at Cyasemakamba stadium, reminded them that the law penalizes traffickers, makers, sellers and consumers.

He urged them to strive not to be victims, stay health and focus on their education, but also be agents of community policing by reporting either dealers or users both in their respectively schools and communities.

“Sharing information on dealers is crucial to ensure that they are arrested but it is also important to ensure that even the addicts are rehabilitated; this is why we also urge you to report your colleagues that are victims of the circumstances,” Jean Nepomuscene Ngwije from NRS told the students.

More than 70 percent of people said to be involved in drug related crimes fall in the youth bracket of between 18 and 35, and the vast majority addicts undergoing rehabilitation at different centres are supposed to be either in school or graduates in labourforce.

Innocent Tumwine, the district director of Governance challenged teachers to take on the mantle in their respective schools to always organise internal debates against drugs and support established anti-drugs clubs.