Fifty youngsters took the City Hall stage on Thursday night to sing and dance a message of alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

The performance was the culmination of a pilot project between the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (CADA) which ran over the last 13 weeks.

Children from three primary schools -- West Pembroke, Paget and Francis Patton -- between the ages of seven and 10 participated in the programme creating skits, poetry and dance to highlight the prevention message.

Cathy Belvedere of CADA said the ages of seven to 10 are a critical time to bring anti-drug and alcohol messages to children: "If you bring these messages to them earlier, they don't retain them and if you bring them later, the kids will have already formed their own impressions.

"Research and studies show that this is the right age to get the message across.'' Keith Smith, the Youth Coordinator for the Ministry added that it was at this age parents begin to take more chances with children -- letting them return from school alone, for example.

"This is an age when children can become latch-key kids and, for the first time, start having the opportunities to get in trouble,'' he said.

Gina Spence worked with the children after school to develop the songs, dance and dramatic routines performed, and served as the evening's emcee.

Ms Spence said she works closely with the radio station Power 95 to select contemporary songs for the children which are popular and positive.

Trying to draw children into activities which they can remain involved with throughout their lives is what the Ministry hopes to achieve with its afterschool programmes, said Mr. Smith.

"We want programmes where kids can learn skills which will be with them in the long term. If the projects teach them skills like drama, dance or art, they can develop lifelong interests.'' Thursday night was the first time many of the young performers ever took the stage.

The children opened the show with an awareness message before performing three musical numbers. Three teachers from the respective schools then competed in the game show "What do you know about drugs'' interspersed with commercial breaks called "Be Smart, Don't Start: Parts 1 and 2''.

After an intermission the kids came back to perform a series of skits on the theme "Children Live What They Learn'', which included `Big Bully', `Timid Me', `Good Deeds' and `Attitude Problem'.

The skits demonstrated how a child's home environment is reflected in their behaviour with their peers outside the home and each one had a moral which was explained by Ms Spence.

The show wrapped up with a drug-free rap and rhyme performed by the entire group.

All the participants were hopeful that the pilot project would be extended well into the future. "We'd like to see these kids coming back years from now to help out,'' said Ms Belvedere.

The programme is set to move into three more schools -- Prospect Primary, Somerset Primary and Sandys Community Centre -- in February.