THE Ateneo de Davao University (AdDu) Committee Against Illegal Drugs (CAID) and Davao City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac) signed an agreement Thursday, December 15, for a joint effort against proliferation of illegal drugs in Davao City, pledging to adopt 3,000 reformists.
University President Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J. said in a press conference that the launching of CAID is a show of support by the academe on the government’s crackdown on illegal drugs.
“AdDu is very happy on this day for today’s launching of the AdDu illegal drugs group and its four programs to complement the President’s war against drugs in partnership with the city,” Tabora said.
These four programs under CAID include Healing and Recovery of Drug surrenderees, Drug Hotline and Referral Helpline, Human Rights Training for Law Enforcers, and Ateneo In-House Community Awareness Training and Mindanao Drug Trade: Linking the local to global.
The healing and recovery for drug reformists will be a community-based rehabilitation program approach.
AdDu will collaborate with the community down to the village level, covering 25 villages.
The drug hotline, which will fully operate in next two months, is a daily program from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight that will provide counseling to callers who have drug problems.
A caller can be the one having a problem or is having a problem with a family member who is involved in drugs.
The third program is Human Rights training where AdDu faculty or personnel will set up a legal forum to educate people on the current laws relevant to both concerns.
“I think we have all been surprised at the extent of the drugs and the progressiveness of the problem. We would like for Mindanao to study the drug trade itself to be able to answer your questions as to how the drug trade drives in Mindanao so that the government may make proper interventions,” Tabora said.
Tabora hopes that with the expertise of academe, “we can blend with the government and with the medical community in making our contribution to this problem.”
Michael Aportadera, co-chair of Cadac, commended the effort of the academe for coming with the programs on properly addressing the drug problem of the city and the country as a whole.
“We are all here to be unified with our efforts to actually give hope to our brothers and sisters who are in this problem. No life will be lost this time but we are giving back their lives to the community,” Aportadera said.
Aportadera said AdDu has been with them in the planning stage of the program for Davao City.
This is in alignment with their campaign dubbed as "Tara Na (Tabangan Ato ng Reformees Aron Naa'y Asenso)," a self-help support group.
“Davao City is now geared to be a benchmark for this program for the rest of the country,” Aportadera said.