Dodoma, Tanzania – 2021

Leading Organisation: STEPS Tanzania

In Tanzania, 2021 Global Action Day commemorations took place in Dodoma capital city where by various stakeholders, including government leaders, civil society organizations (Local NGOs, CBOs, faith based organizations), international NGOs and private sector representatives participated in the commemorations. STEPS Tanzania was among the local organizations working on Harm Reduction that participated in the commemoration of the Global action day, through active participation of the leadership, key staff and drug using community representatives who offered educative sessions and led the campaign on social inclusion, policy change especially existing drug policy frameworks and the importance of defending rights and campaigns against discrimination among drug users.

In commemoration of the 2021 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (World Drug Day), STEPS Tanzania’s activities focused on raising awareness and advocacy on different issues surrounding the life of people who use drugs. In brief, the following activities were conducted during the 2021 Day of Action.

Advocacy: the activity was done by staff and beneficiary representatives, an advocacy on Support Don’t Punish day, which aimed at increasing awareness to the community on the importance of the World Drug Day which is done every year.  Specifically, the focus of STEPS Tanzania and beneficiary representatives was to send the message to the decision and policy makers of supporting people who use drugs to have better policies that prioritize and address their public health concerns, human rights issues and reduce discrimination among drug users.

Health Education:  Using the hired pavilion, STEPS Tanzania staff and drug user’s representatives (Beneficiaries) met different people and offered educative sessions on the importance of harm reduction services. The activity aimed at reducing community misconceptions towards Harm Reduction services, especially the distribution of sterile needles and syringes among injecting drug users, currently implemented by STEPS Tanzania and other CSOs.
Distribution of IEC materials, as part of this year commemoration STEPS Tanzania designed, printed and distributed brochures (leaflets, flyers) and printed and successfully distributed T-shirts with the national theme, Support Don’t Punish and other different messages, including management of an overdose, harm reduction package, prevention of COVID-19, safe injection and HIV/ Tuberculosis prevention.

Media engagement: STEPS Tanzania understand the power of media in reaching the wider community and due to that, STEPS team managed to have interviews with different media houses and voiced out the needs of the Tanzania community regarding key issues facing people who use drugs, and the strategic support needed in order to overcome those challenges that hinder universal access to services. All of our social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) was dedicated to this year’s campaign, providing different messages and information regarding the World Drug Day. Our website (steps.or.tz) which is under construction was also used as a platform for community sensitization.

Contact: [email protected]