ARA

Jun 4, 2009

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The Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA) has committed increased funding to the Foundation for Alcohol Related Research (FARR) to help reach and educate more communities.  The funds will be used to ensure that more people are trained in the field of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in South Africa.

“With the alarming rates of FAS in South Africa, and particularly in the Northern Cape and Western Cape, ARA fully supports the initiatives of the FARR Training Academy and the effort they are putting in to educating professionals, communities, parents and caregivers and generating increased awareness on substance abuse and its effects,” says Adrian Botha, spokesperson for the ARA.

The workshops were developed out of a need express by the Training Academy educators to know and understand more about substance abuse, FASD and how to manage a child with FASD.  ARA stepped in to work with FARR to establish training workshops along with the necessary material that was developed from their years of research and intervention programmes with children. The additional funding has allowed for the appointment of consultants and the development of training material and tool kits.

“The continued financial input from ARA has allowed us to further our investment in the community by raising the awareness of substance abuse and its effects through the capacity building of health care providers, educators, social workers, undergraduate students and many others involved in the community,” added Leana Oliver, CEO of FARR.

To date 173 participants have completed the Substance Abuse and FASD training workshops throughout South Africa which include the likes of occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians, social workers, speech therapists, professional nurses and staff from NGOs and the Departments of Health and Social Development.  The training, developed by FARR, is in line with SAQA and the Health and Welfare Seta requirements with Continued Professional Development (CPD) accreditation allocated to some of the courses.  

“We continue to see the benefit in the community as a result of training on the issues of alcohol and substance abuse, not the least of which is a wonderful programme that involves the training of social workers in the ‘Train the Trainer’ workshop which provides these social workers with all the necessary knowledge and skills to further train other health and community service providers.  ARA is very proud of the work that is being done by FARR and their Training Academy and our financial contribution is having such a significant impact on the skills capacity in the community as well as the increased awareness being generated as a result,” commented Botha.

FARR Training Academy aims to train at least 320 people each year in addition to offering presentations on substance abuse and FASD to raise community awareness.   The issue of FASD is of great concern in South Africa with the highest reported rates in the world being identified in the Northern Cape.  

“We hope that the continued education and training will assist in building the capacity of those in the health care profession, social services and other professionals working within communities to enable them to identify, prevent and manage people at risk of or affected by substance abuse and FASD.  The more people we are able to reach through our training, the more the communities of South Africa will benefit and be empowered to deal with these challenges,” added Olivier.