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About 150 secondary and primary school students today (April 10) painted a mural carrying anti-drug messages at the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) Building.
The mural painting activity is the finale of the "Anti-drug Heroes" design competition jointly organised by the Narcotics Division of the Security Bureau (ND), the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN), Yahoo! Hong Kong and the HKFYG.
In view of the lowering of the age of drug abusers and the hidden nature of youth drug abuse, the ND and ACAN hope to use the Internet, a popular medium of communication among young people, to reach them with anti-drug messages. The ND and ACAN, together with Yahoo! Hong Kong and HKFYG, co-organised the "Anti-drug Heroes" design competition as an innovative way of combining anti-drug publicity and online counselling.
The design competition was held in three phases between June 2009 and March 2010. Participants could choose to take part in any phase of the competition and submitted their artwork according to the design themes of the three phases, namely, "Anti-drug heroes", "Apparel of the Anti-drug heroes" and "Weapons to combat drugs of the Anti-drug heroes". Participants were also required to describe the ideas behind their designs in words. Submissions were assessed by a judging panel made up of representatives from the organisers. Net surfers could also vote for their favourite design. A professional designer was invited to incorporate the winning designs into the mural that was painted by the students today.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Chairperson of the ACAN Sub-committee on Preventive Education and Publicity, Ms Scarlett Pong Oi-lan, said she was pleased to learn about the active participation of youths in the design competition. They had fully demonstrated their creativity through the Internet to design their dream anti-drug heroes and helped promote anti-drug messages. She said she hoped that young people joining the design competition could gain a better understanding of the harmful effects of drugs through the competition website or the offline sharing activities, and would know how to say "No" to drugs.
Ms Pong said, "With the help of Yahoo! Hong Kong to promote the design competition on the Internet, we can disseminate anti-drug messages to the youths through the competition. In addition, professional social workers of the HKFYG have offered their assistance to provide counselling services to young people via online message boards, to rectify their misunderstanding on psychotropic substances and provide timely services to at-risk youths."
The design competition received an enthusiastic response, with more than 700 creative and imaginative entries. To inspire participants' creativity, the organisers held three sharing sessions and a visit to a drug treatment and rehabilitation centre in which more than 170 young people joined.
Other guests at today's mural painting activity and award presentation ceremony were Website Director of the HKFYG, Mr Ken Ngai, and Consultant in the Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Tuen Mun Hospital, Dr Peggy Chu.
The three guests presented awards to winners of the design competition. They then led the student participants to make a pledge to remain drug-free. Afterwards, 150 students in 20 groups together painted the mural, which was divided into 40 parts.
The "Anti-drug Heroes" mural painting will be displayed at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Drug InfoCentre in Admiralty for public viewing.
Ends/Saturday, April 10, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:55
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