Media statement 21 February 2024
Cllr Rina Marx
MMC for Health
Recently, a total of 30 upcoming peer educators in Eersterust were trained on the dangers associated with drug and substance abuse. This was part of the Community Orientated Substance Use Programme (COSUP) run by the City in partnership with the University of Pretoria.
COSUP is a harm-reduction programme informed by scientific evidence that is aimed at addressing drug and substance abuse in Tshwane. The objectives are to prevent, treat, rehabilitate and reintegrate people affected by substance abuse through community-orientated primary care intervention. Those in need of assistance are serviced at 16 operating sites across the city. The reach to communities is expanded through street medicine and street therapy to service those who are unable to visit the sites.
Trainees were taken through the different types of drugs and related effects, factors enabling substance abuse, harm and demand reduction and the stigma attached to substance abuse, to name a few. Once empowered, these peer educators will use their newly acquired knowledge to help strengthen awareness in their respective communities about the dangers associated with substance abuse. In 2022, as the MMC for Health, I initiated training interventions such as this one to community patrollers in Region 1.
The City of Tshwane is the first and only municipality in South Africa to –
- promote services that are proven to reduce drug-related risks and harm to people who use drugs and for the communities they live in;
- provide and fund services for people who use drugs, including those who may not want to or be able to stop using drugs; and
- support and fund disease prevention services for people who inject drugs. This includes opioid substitution therapy (OST) and the provision and collection of sterile injecting equipment, which reduces infections, like HIV and hepatitis C, as well as the health burden on the individual and wider community.
Our upcoming peer educators are being empowered to make a positive impact in their respective communities.
Media enquiries: Natashia Chhiba (natashiach@tshwane.gov.za)