NDACC Says “Make Driving Safely Your New Year’s Resolution.”

The National Drug Abuse Control Council, alongside the Ministry of Health and Wellness, is furthering their mission of making the roads of Belize a safer place. With the New Year comes the re-launch of their “Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign”. The campaign, which has been ongoing since 2023, is social media and roadside operated mission to inform Belizeans on the dangers of driving under the influence. Although the campaign runs year-round, holiday seasons are an especially vulnerable time for the organization. We spoke with Esner Vellos, Director of the National Drug Abuse Control Council, on the issue.

 

Esner Vellos, Director, National Drug Abuse Control Council 

“Our mandate is to ensure that we provide The relevant information to the population, not only through our programs in the schools and in the communities or through our outreach services, but also in reference to major holidays. Last year in 2023, we did three major campaigns that alluded to drunk driving. We did one in April, during the Easter break, we also did one during the September celebrations. And we did another one in December just to ensure that we have a safe holiday season and ensuring that we reduce the number of drunk driving. We do know that we personally, through the Ministry of Health, cannot reduce drunk driving, but we can ensure that we provide the relevant information so that the people can make the right choices and ensure that they don’t drink and drive.”

 

Reporter

“You mentioned that you guys kind of reinvented this campaign by taking it onto social media. How else do you guys plan on elevating this campaign in the future?”

 

Esner Vellos

“One of the things that we want to do is to ensure that we have billboards up there. The effect that we have had in terms of social media campaign was very great because we know that a lot of our young people are social media savvy, and that is one target group that we’re very much interested to ensuring that our younger population, especially our young kids are aware of the dangers of alcohol consumption. Not only in terms of drunk driving, but also in the overall effects that alcohol has whenever someone consumes these substances. And not only alcohol, but also marijuana and all the illegal substances that we may have here in the country of Belize. This holiday season campaign, what we did, was that we also included the media houses to make sure that as much people get the information And it’s for the first time, the Ministry of Health, for the National Drug Abuse Control Council, created and produced an ad that would showcase specifically that. So that, at the end of the day, our contribution would have been the information that is needed so that people make the right choices in life.”