A drug prevention program has been implemented in the elementary schools of Arad-Tamar over the past year after the Community Education Committee of the Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 Leadership Development program identified drug addiction as the biggest threat to the Negev town's social fabric. Fifth and sixth graders have participated in an interactive self-propelled computer course which explains to the children the perils of drugs.

"The Community Education Committee felt that because of the region's isolation," explains Oz Ben Shmuel the community representative of the New Jersey-Delaware cluster which is partnered with Arad-Tamar in Partnership 2000. "The youngsters are prone to boredom in the evening and could become easy prey to drug pushers."

New Jersey-Delaware provided the seed money for the program through Partnership 2000, which received funding from the Ministry of Education, the Association for the Advancement of Education in Jaffa (which devised the program), the Dvora Meir Fund, the Anti-Drugs Authority and the Arad Municipality. The program was so successful, and the municipality was so impressed by its impact, that municipal taxes have been raised by 2% to expand the program in the coming school year.

Sagit Sana, the program coordinator says "the program is having great impact so far among the first 300 youngsters in five schools. This is very encouraging, and we plan to both widen and deepen our outreach."

June 1999