CREATING A DRUG-FREE ENVIRONMENT FOR ASEAN

The 183 participants of the 17th IFNGO Asean NGOs Workshop received
their certificates of participation yesterday at the Rizqun
International Hotel, venue of the three-day workshop hosted by
BASMIDA, Brunei Darussalam, which also hosted the closing ceremony
for the event.

On hand to present the certificates to the participants, as well as
the invited speakers, were President of BASMIDA Datin Hjh Masni Hj
Mohd Ali and Mr Greg Stanton of INL, USA.

Prior to the presentation, the 17th IFNGO ASEAN NGOs Workshop's
Resolutions and Recommendations were read out, and was followed by a
closing speech from Datin Hjh Masni.

She noted that the workshop had left them with more provocative and
new ideas and thinking, and opened up venues and strategies that
could be explored or suggested to reduce recidivism back in their own
countries.

She also expressed her hopes that all the participants from Brunei,
relevant government agencies, local NGOs and from abroad had found
the workshop valuable and extended her appreciation to the
distinguished speakers.

IFNGO and BASMIDA, she added, hopes that the Workshop's Resolutions
and Recommendations will be relevant to countries and organisations
in the fight to reduce recidivism.

"To all the Asean anti-drug NGOs, I challenge you to carry out
projects or activities that will manifest one or two of the
recommendations, in one year's time, until we meet at the 18th IFNGO
NGOs Workshop," the BASMIDA president said.

Speaking on the news article in yesterday's Bulletin, about the
youths who were nabbed in a drug bust by the nation's premier drug
law enforcer, NCB, she stressed out that the workshop was not the
last of anti-drug measures needed to be taken.

She reiterated that the public must volunteer as well to help BASMIDA
to move forward, and take more proactive steps to help the youth stay
away from drugs.