LION KING 2019

With Indonesia’s existing economic growth and infrastructure development, Indonesia is stepping into a more prosperous future. Having said that, the welfare of the people still remains to be a concerning aspect of this country. Based on the third Tobacco Atlas, Indonesia holds the highest number of smokers in ASEAN with more than a third of the population (36.3%) being active smokers. Furthermore, to prove the significance of this issue, data from the Indonesian National Commission for Child Protection states that the number of smokers of children under 10 years of age reaches approximately 239,000 people. As a matter of fact, Yogyakarta, a student-packed city that is well known for its educated and cultured nature, ranks fourth with the highest number of smokers in Indonesia under Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan.

Although there have been several attempts to reduce the number of young smokers such as the issuance of Minister of Health Regulation No. 28 of 2013 concerning Inclusion of Health and Health Information Warning on Tobacco Product Packaging, there is still an increase in the prevalence of young smokers from year to year. The Indonesian Ministry of Health stated that the prevalence rose from 20.30% in 2010 to 23.10% in 2016. 

Based on Riskesdas DIY in 2013, most smokers first believed to tried smoking in the age range of 10-14 years or 15-19 years. SCOPH CIMSA UGM has always believed the notion that prevention is a better option than cure. For this particular reason, we continue our commitments to local community through a project named Lion King, supporting SDG 3 on Good Health and Well Being.

On Saturday, 6th April 2018, SCOPH CIMSA UGM implemented Lion King: Early Prevention of Drug Use and Smoking at SMPN 4 Ngaglik. Lion King aims to introduce the students of SMPN 4 Ngaglik to drug use and smoking accordingly and give them the proper education about the dangers of the two. The activity started with an education about smoking and drugs to the students in four different classes by SCOPH members who had attended both of the pre-project trainings. 

Following the in-class education, we divided them into small groups, and held cigarette and drug-themed poster competition. We hope by holding this competition, the students could learn how to encourage others to stop or avoid smoking and drugs in the form of posters. 

Followed by outdoor games, we established six game posts, some of which were: cigarette experiment using plastic bottles, introduction to cancer preparations due to smoking from the Anatomical Pathology laboratory of UGM FK-KMK, and Focus Group Discussion. In the Focus Group Discussion, we encouraged the students to discuss about the problems surrounding high numbers of smokers and drug users in Indonesia and what do we have to do when the people closest with us are smokers. At the end of the FGD, we prepared a large board for the students to write their hopes and messages for smokers and drug users around them. The board then was given to the school as a memento.



Ending the event is a sharing session brought by BNNP DIY and Raja Bandar (Gerakan Jauhi Bahaya Napza dan Rokok) UGM. Both parties shared their knowledge and experience in their field of expertise. Hopefully, through Lion King, the students of SMPN 4 Ngaglik can have greater perception of drug use and smoking, and grow up avoiding them.