Boot camps tackle alcohol, drug abuse

Boot camps for students during school holidays have become disciplinary sessions which continue to grow students into responsible young citizens, says founder and president of Youth Of Hope Safe Haven (YOHSHO), Boipelo Mokone in an interview. He has been to several schools for the boot camp sessions. He will join Montshiwa Junior Secondary School students for a week’s boot camp this Sunday. He says the boot camp is primarily focused on developing the academic performance of the students through an organisation‘s academic excellence clinic programme.

Mokone shares that drugs and alcohol have been issues in some high schools and that the boot camp platform allows students to change from these habits. “Through the Student’s Potential Achievement through Networking Schools in Excellent Tutorials (SPANSET) which is a drug abuse resistant based education, we have observed that students are on drugs and alcohol and they badly need counselling on this, which gives us a privilege to even applaud the government for the newly introduced initiative of boot camps,” he said.

The programme’s coordinator, Phemelo Segale says the initiative is beneficial to the students, as it is meant to improve their performance at school. The programme entails effective study skills and techniques, highlighting that they also touch on life skills including drug and substance use, sexual morality, talent search and development. The two gentlemen who are ex-drug addicts say that it is their objective to reach out to the youth and teenagers in schools, churches and communities to help fight drugs and excessive use of alcohol.