The purpose of the project is to protect the health of students, to inform about the harmful effects of cigarette smoke and electronic smoking devices on the body.
Starting next week, the second stage of the “Schools without nicotine and tobacco” project will begin in Lviv region and will continue until the end of this year. After the implementation of this initiative, schools will become a healthy and safe environment for learning, information campaigns will give an opportunity to increase the awareness of students about the dangers of using tobacco products and electronic cigarettes, and to preserve health in the future.
“The initiative was launched last year with the support of the WHO Bureau. Then 10 schools of the Lviv region joined the project. Schoolchildren were told about the harm of smoking. Preliminary results showed that 3% of schoolchildren in these institutions gave up the bad habit. In view of this, the management of other schools in the Lviv region wanted to join the project. I emphasize that smoking is very harmful. Educational institutions should be an example of a healthy lifestyle for children. Closer to the end of the academic year, we will organize an educational academy for education departments dedicated to this topic,” noted Oleg Paska, director of the Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Academy of Arts.
The initiators of the project were the Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, the Department of Education and Science of Lviv Oblast, the Department of Health Protection of Lviv Oblast, with the support of WHO.
In the second stage of the project, students of grades 9-11 from ten schools of the region will take part. Including:
Gymnasium “Provesen” in Lviv;
Zhovkivskyi ZZSO I-III century. #1;
Zolochiv ZZSO I-III century. #3;
Brodivsk Gymnasium named after Ivan Trush;
Boryslavsky ZZSO I-III century. #1;
Slavsky ZZSO I-III century. #1;
Rozvadivsky ZZSO I-III century;
Radekhiv support ZZSO;
Starosambir support ZZSO No. 1 I-III century. named after the Hero of Ukraine B. Solchanyk;
Yasynskyi ZZSO I-III century. named after Pamva Berinda;
Lectures will be held for them about the harm of smoking with the use of illustrative materials.
“Ordinary cigarettes or electronic cigarettes have an equally bad effect on our body. To realize that this damage really exists, you need to know about it. This knowledge must be conveyed to children from childhood. Therefore, our lectures will have an informative and explanatory nature. In order to interest the listeners, the lecturers will conduct an intellectual game with the students for better assimilation of the material,” said Director of the Lviv Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention Nataliya Ivanchenko.
In Lviv Oblast, more than 12,000 people with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases are registered. One of the causes of such diseases is smoking. Thus, the project aims to reduce the level of chronic diseases of the respiratory system among the residents of the region.
“We are trying to implement measures for the development of public health among the students of education. This is about preventing diseases, prolonging life, strengthening health. These measures are effective only when the efforts of all communities are united. We want to create such an environment in all educational institutions together with the specialists of the departments of the Lviv OVA, the Disease Prevention Control Center. Students should know how to take care of their health,” Nataliya Ivanchenko added.
Another joint initiative of the Department of Education and Science and the Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention with the support of the WHO Office in Ukraine and Switzerland is “Every school is a healthy school”.
Five schools from the Lviv region will take part. Pupils will be told about healthy nutrition, which foods give the body vitamins, and which can cause certain disorders. In this way, children will form healthy eating behavior. Attention will also be focused on children’s physical activity, the number of calories consumed and spent per day. These measures will prevent the development of diabetes, obesity and other diseases associated with poor nutrition and low activity.
If both children and parents like this initiative, then other schools will be able to participate in such activities.