Dinesh Kamath's news 'Police & Heart to fight against Drug and Sexual Abuse' that was published in Newsband

Police & Heart to fight against Drug and Sexual Abuse

By Dinesh Kamath

(Above) Photo: Children enjoying the inauguration ceremony. Inset:- (from left) – Shri Patil, Shri Arjun Aadagale, Dr. Jayakar Ellis, Shri Deshmukh & Shri Katkar.

NAVI MUMBAI: In a bid to curb the rampant growing of drug abuse and silence on Child abuse in Schools and Colleges, The Maharashtra Police (Navi Mumbai Unit) and Heart (Helping to Educate, Associate, Rehabilitate & Teach) Foundation have joined together and launched “PACT” (Prevention of Abuse of Children & Teens) through which they would be going around different Corporation and Private Schools to spread awareness of the above. This initiative will be done in phases through out the year from 14th July 2014 to 15th August 2015 under the PACT project which is the brainchild of Dr. Jayakar Ellis, Founder, Heart Foundation.

 “We are very happy to be associated with the Heart foundation for such a unique endeavor and with the guidance of our Police Commissioner Sir Shri K L Prasad we hope to reach out to the children with a message that life is much better than drugs,” said Mr. Deshmukh, Senior Police Inspector, Turbhe MIDC. “We have been wanting to do this program since the past few months and after several meetings with Dr Ellis and his team we are able to start it,” said ACP Vivek Masal.

 “Children these days are stormed and confronted with struggles including addictions of various sorts, peer pressure, high pressure to perform, extreme competitive environments, struggles of broken home backgrounds, and the struggle to be brave and ‘cool’ before friends and parents. This slowly pushes them into these habits knowingly and unknowingly. We at the Heart want to CARE TO CURE the society by reaching out to these tender hearts and show them that life is worth living without all these habits,” said Dr. Jayakar Ellis.

The inauguration of the year long program was done at the SK Vidyalaya, Turbhe Store with over 300 children and several Corporators from that area attending the same. Shri Arjun Aadagale, Chairman, Slum Improvement Committee, NMMC, Shri Katkar (Crime) & Shri Patil (Adm) of the Navi Mumbai Police were also present and shared their views about the same.

“I never knew what drugs were and now that I know I will spread it amongst my friends” said one student.  “I am happy that I came to know these things at this age so now I will never touch them in my life” said another student.