Town Pulls Together to Save the Lives of Kids

With children as young as 9 addicted to drugs, the town of Heidedal, South Africa, came together to create a drug-free community.

The town of Heidedal’s 2016 Man of the Year Gregory Werner launched a Truth About Drugs campaign January 20-23 to take aim at drug abuse and save lives.

“Children as young as 9 are already addicted to drugs,” says Werner. What’s more, police report a nearly 10x increase in drug-related crime from 2005 to 2016.

Looking for a way to tackle this issue, Werner contacted the Foundation for a Drug-Free Africa in Tschwane (Pretoria) and organized a weekend of drug prevention activities for maximum impact.

• Werner formed and now heads the Heidedal Local Drug Action Committee and many community leaders signed on.
  
• A corps of community leaders trained as Truth About Drugs drug prevention specialists.
• Volunteers handed out 2,400 Truth About Drugs booklets at Heidedal’s Twin City Mall.
• Schools, churches, businesses, parents and community groups signed on to be part of the campaign.
• A Sunday afternoon community meeting at Norman Doubell Hall introduced 800 to the Truth About Drugs campaign.

The finale was drug education lectures delivered to some 1,300 students of Heide Primary School.

More than half the town’s population was reached by the campaign message over the weekend, and the community has mobilized to make Heidedal drug-free.

Foundation for a Drug-Free World is one of the humanitarian programs supported by Scientologists and the Church of Scientology. The Church makes the Foundation’s Truth About Drugs materials available free of charge for anyone wishing to use them to help raise awareness on the danger of drugs. In his research, Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard discovered that “the single most destructive element present in our current culture is drugs.”  

Foundation for a Drug-Free World is one of the humanitarian programs supported by Scientologists and the Church of Scientology. The Church makes the Foundation’s Truth About Drugs materials available free of charge for anyone wishing to use them to help raise awareness of the dangers of drugs. In his research, Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard discovered that “the single most destructive element present in our current culture is drugs.”