Abu Dhabi: The capital got busy with an anti-smoking campaign driven by teenagers over the weekend.
Nahtam Social Responsibility, a company that supported the initiative and helped launch the campaign, inaugurated the ‘Are You the One Among Five’ a Quit Smoking Awareness initiative, in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. As part of the project, young volunteers will be speaking to residents about the negative effects caused by smoking.
George Itty, one of the founding members and CEO of Nahtam, shared his prediction of the movement’s growth: “It will be a continuous programme for every part of the community and we eventually would like to end up in schools and labour camps where we will be requesting people to take selfies or videos suggesting the harmful side of smoking.
“The person with the most likes on their picture or video will be eligible for a health club membership,” Itty added.
Itty also explained that Nahtam would be looking to work with other organisations as the campaign progressed.
Most of the volunteers Gulf News spoke to said they decided to join the initiative because they had family members who regularly smoke.
Ira Kamble, 17, is spreading the message of anti-smoking because of what she heard of her grandfather. “He passed away before I was born and from what my father tells me, he used to smoke a lot and that might have been one of the reasons he died so early. This has always stuck in my mind. If he hadn’t smoked so much, I might have been able to meet him,” she said.
Ira also wants people to understand that smoking can negatively effect people around them as well. “I think it is a personal decision [whether you wish to take up smoking], but you have to think about the people around you, as second-hand smoke is harmful.”
Another young volunteer involved with the initiative, Zayed Al Haddar, 15, said he joined the campaign because he wanted to promote a healthy lifestyle for other young teenagers.
“I want to help people stop smoking because nobody needs to smoke in their life. It damages health.” Young people, he said, need to be particularly aware of this.
The campaign ends on Saturday but Itty said there are plans of extending the initiative across the UAE.
