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The Vice-Ministry of Drug Prevention and Social Rehabilitation, SEAMOS Foundation, and United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) sponsored a seminar on drug prevention in the workplace and in the community. Two Brazilian experts conducted the event. The objective of the seminar, held on April 14 in the auditorium of the National Chamber of Industry and Commerce, was to promote the UN's inter-agency drug-prevention model, which is currently being applied in Porto Alegre, Brazil, through the project, "Drug Prevention in the Workplace and in the Community" (BRA/972), financed by UNDCP and the Brazilian private-sector organization, Industry Social Service (SESI). According to studies conducted by SESI and UNDCP, with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO), 85 per cent of workers in the Brazilian state of R�o Grande do Sul take medications, 16 per cent of them without medical supervision. Seven per cent of a survey sample of 50,000 persons had consumed illicit drugs at least once in their life, and one percent consumed them habitually. Also identified was a direct relation between drug abuse and low work productivity, which was manifest in absenteeism and accidents in the workplace. In the conviction that employee welfare results in higher productivity, SESI, UNDCP, and ILO, supported by the Brazilian private sector, are implementing Project BRA/972 in 30 Brazilian firms, employing some 650,000 workers. With this experience, consultants Leda Coelho Ribeira and Arlete Boeira Suzin visited Bolivia to describe BRA/972 and its results, and to share its methodology in hopes of stirring interest among Bolivia's entrepreneurs. Several private Bolivian firms as well as public entities and international organizations were invited to participate in the event. PHILOSOPHY BRA/972's methodology incorporates fundamental philosophical premises, such as "Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, teach me and I will understand." It rests on the values, attitudes, behavior, and flexibility of the particular firm, for which a prevention model is tailored that targets executives, division chiefs, and line personnel. The planning stage, which involves research and design, lasts for 10 months. The second, or employee-training stage, lasts for three months,, with the third and final development stage lasting for another five months. The application cost of this prevention methodology is $ US 17,800, which is covered by the firm requesting the services of BRA/972 through SESI. The total project budget is $ US 1,600,000, of which UNDCP contributes 20 percent, the remainder coming from SESI. The project has worked to date with 38 private firms and five worker-training schools. MERCOSUR The Brazilian consultants took advantage of the seminar in La Paz to report on the First Congress of MERCOSUR on Drug Prevention in the Workplace and in the Family, to be held in Porto Alegre on July 8-10, 1998. Sponsored by SESI and UNDCP, the Congress will seek to motivate private firms from MERCOSUR and its observer countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile) to develop drug-prevention policies and programmes, integrated with international models. |
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