In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is a daily increase in the number of people addicted to various psychoactive substances and engaging in risky behaviors. These figures highlight the urgent need for active efforts to prevent further deterioration of the situation. Although various preventive measures are implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina to address this problem, the key challenge is that many of these interventions are not based on scientific research and, as such, do not produce the desired results.

This is why the Association for Addiction Prevention NARKO – NE, through training on the European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC), seeks to educate key individuals on scientifically based prevention and preventive interventions that have been proven effective by science. The goal of the training is also to raise awareness that inadequate prevention programs can have the opposite effect and cause more harm than good.

So far, nine EUPC trainings have been held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on September 25 and 26, 2024, the tenth training was held in Goražde at the Behar Hotel. The training was attended by experts from various institutions who are directly or indirectly involved in the implementation of preventive programs.

Training leaders Amir Hasanović, Executive Director of NARKO-NE, and Sanela Pekić, expert associate for addiction prevention programs in school environments at NARKO-NE, used various methods to introduce participants to scientifically based prevention and explain how theoretical approaches can be applied in practice.

Ermin Bašaškić, an employee of the Social Work Center of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde, and Deputy Mayor Samira Drakovac shared their impressions after completing the training:

Prevention should certainly become one of the essential focuses of our daily work, so from that aspect, it was interesting to me. What surprised me was the level of scientific approach to prevention. I had never thought of prevention as a separate scientific discipline, but rather as a component of various scientific fields. I was particularly interested in the number of studies that support different preventive approaches. In the context of the entire training, I am grateful for the access to information. The manual we received is very useful, containing numerous other sources of information about various preventive programs, as well as opportunities for next steps. – Ermin Bašaškić

The training was intense and interesting for me. My previous knowledge was quite modest, but these two days met my expectations, considering all the insights I gained. The City of Goražde participates in the Healthy Communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina project, and we also have a youth strategy, so this training is very useful for us in terms of selecting future ideas and activities that we will fund within the framework of that project.– Samira Drakovac

Through the European Prevention Curriculum training, NARKO-NE aims to expand the network of experts involved in preventive programs, with the goal of raising awareness about effective preventive interventions. Following the training in Goražde, EUPC trainings will be conducted in other cities across Bosnia and Herzegovina, aiming to ensure that more professionals, as well as the general public, become aware of the importance of this issue and actively contribute to addressing it through scientifically based approaches.

The training was held with the support of the regional project SMART Balkan – Civil Society for a Connected Western Balkans, implemented by the Center for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD), the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM), and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), and financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.