Malawi Girl Guides Association (MAGGA) chief commissioner, Mrs Mary Ngwale, said at Mitundu Primary School in Lilongwe that the association decided to run a campaign to sensitize communities on the evils of drug and substance abuse after a research which revealed that the tendency largely affected girls’ education and general welfare.

Children we talked to said sometimes their parents ask them to sell a variety of goods at different places including drink- ing joints which they said affected them.

Some even further went on to say that their own parents were into drug and substance abuse such that there was little attention giv- en to their welfare on their part,” said Ngwale.

According to her, the campaign which is running in the whole of Lilongwe targets girls from as young as 3 years to those in tertiary institutions of learning.

Ngwale said some of the strategies they were using in the campaign included special talks with children, open days and the engage- ment of the Malawi Police Service (MPS) in conducting similar talks on the subject.

“We also have Happy Family Groups that are composed of parents which are again taught about the cons of drug and substance abuse so that that they can pass down the information to their children in the confines of their homes,” said Ngwale, adding that they also involved the social welfare department of government.

The campaign, Ngwale said, would im-mensely help in making parents fully under- stand their responsibilities in protecting their children for drinking and smoking as well as enable children desist from engaging in the misdemeanor.