About 4,500 children, their parents and teachers from Chisinau, Bălți and Cahul will be informed about the risks associated with alcohol and tobacco use. There will be printed informative-educative materials and staged training courses for 400 family doctors and psychiatrists and 9,000 employees from five state institutions. The events will be organized by the Public Association for Development and Assistance ASTRA whose project “Moldova says NO to tobacco and alcohol” was designated winner in a contest held by the National Health Insurance Company (CNAM).
AO ASTRA member Luminița Suveica said that while serving as the chief state sanitary doctor of Chisinau, she accumulated sufficient experience for initiating such a project. “We expect the administration of CNAM will invite us to sign the contract so that we start work. We do not yet have an online communication platform, but will launch it after we sign the contract so as to have access to funds. We planned to start work on August 1. We projected programs that are to be broadcast on Moldova 1 and Radio Copilăria, but I think these will be cancelled. The budget costs will diminish this way and we will get less money of the planned 1 496 000 lei. From this sum, we will pay experts, will print informative materials and will organize events during the Alcohol-Free National Day in the Public Garden “Ştefan cel Mare” of Chisinau,” Luminița Suveică stated for IPN.
AO ASTRA manager Andrei Suveică said the training courses, the activities to print informative materials and to train doctors will be carried out in cooperation with experts in the field, such as psychologists Vadim Aftenie and Ecaterina Moga. The informative materials will be coordinated with CNAM and the National Public Health Agency.
Contacted by IPN for details, Silvia Munteanu, spokeswoman for CNAM, said that as a result of a contest announced through the institution’s website on July 6, the Public Association for Development and Social Assistance ASTRA got the highest score. ASTRA is to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the risks associated with the use of alcohol and tobacco, including of new tobacco products, and is to train health specialists for motivating a higher number of users to give up smoking and drinking alcohol.
At least three campaigns to encourage abandonment of alcohol and tobacco use are conducted annually. The last was carried out at the end of May on the initiative of WHO and in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of Moldova. The activities staged by AO ASTRA will last until this yearend.
