ESC: Volunteering in teams for Substance Abuse Prevention Month

HELP was established in Split, Croatia in1992, as an NGO for helping youth and people with drug related problems. The residence of HELP is in the city of Split, but the field of activities spans wider. We run activities in several other cities and islands in the county of Dalmatia, as well as in other Northern and Southern Croatian counties. All our activities are running in two ways through two main parallels programs: Youth Information Centre (YIC) and Harm Reduction (HR). The main goal of Harm Reduction (HR) is HIV/AIDS prevention. In the frame of HR activities we try to reduce the harm caused by drug use or harm of the other high risk behaviors, particularly commercial sex work. The target group is population with high risk behaviors; intravenous drug users (IDUs), commercial sex workers (CSW), and PLWHIV (people living with HIV/AIDS). Some of the activities of HR are: Needle Exchange service, out - reach work, sending IDUs to treat in therapeutic communities in country and abroad, Voluntary Counselling and Testing on HIV and hepatitis (VCT), distributing educational materials, providing condoms free of charge, raising public awareness about HIV/AIDS, helping PLWHIV in everyday life struggle, providing education, trainings etc. The main target group of Youth Information Centre (YIC) is youth in general (age 14-30). Through YIC HELP try to enhance the quality of youth life. The main goal is to enable young people to take more responsible and more active role in the society. To make them capable for such role, it is necessary to inform and educate them. Since 2003 we are organizing Youth –peer education in the field of reproductive health, and every year around 600 youth (mainly adolescents) attend educations. Through the YIC, we try to collect and distribute as much useful information as possible, without political, religious or other influence. Also we try to develop youth mobility, enhance non formal education and intercultural understanding, as well as stimulate volunteer’s engagement among youth on local and international level. To be more successful in reaching those goals, HELP try to provide as more as possible different local and international opportunities created for youth involvement and non-formal learning. The result of such engagement is a large number of youth actively involved in volunteering activities on local and international level.