Bringing conversation about drugs with young people into Keckemet – smaller town in Hungary

Balint Torok, Hungary

Kecskemét is a smaller town in the middle of Hungary. In terms of drug education, similarly to any other countryside area, it has little to no information about harm reduction. Social workers have a limited amount of information to work with young people who use drugs and unfortunately, new ideas are not particularly welcomed.

This is the main reason we decided to bring the multiplier event here. In Budapest, the audience would have been those same people who are relatively well-educated on this topic and familiar with any latest research or method.

The main idea was to split the event into two separate ones to appeal to different audiences. We organised one in the morning, mainly focusing on local-government officials and journalists. The structure was slightly different, leaning on the introduction of the manual and the projects we participated in. The second one, we structured for social workers and peer educators, aiming to bring more interactivity to the workshop.

The actual participants were varied, however, so in the workshops were mostly similar and there were only minor differences between the two. The participants were interested and raised a couple of interesting questions in the end. As we learned in the end of both projects, they had no previous information about these topics, and they were genuinely interested in reading the manual, although, we did not have the physical copies at the time of the event.

In terms of media coverage, journalists and reporters came to write articles. It took some time to adequately answer their questions, as those showed some narrow-mindedness in these topics, but eventually, we came to a mutual understanding. A local television-channel crew was also present, making some interviews before the events.

In conclusion, we think that the multiplier event was successful, although it is important to add that more follow-ups will be necessary in terms of sharing the printed manuals. We were particularly happy about the enthusiasm of social workers and their interest in the manual.