One very wet Tuesday afternoon at Paget Primary school a ten-year-old boy sidled up to a girl of his age.“Hey, you want some alcohol?” he asked nonchalantly. The girl looked at the offered cup critically.“No thank you,” she said politely. “I don’t drink alcohol because it will hurt my body.” She turned and walked away.Luckily, there was no real alcohol involved. The offered cup was just imaginary.The two Paget Primary students were acting out a skit during a Department of Youth and Sport after-school programme designed to improve student self-esteem.The after-school programme incorporated an eight-week CADA workshop designed to educate primary four to six students about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. CADA is a local charity that addresses drug and alcohol issues in the community.The Royal Gazette recently visited students and programme supervisors at Paget Primary to learn more.“I have learned to say no,” said Te-Lyah Taylor, nine. “I have learned about bad habits.”CADA programme facilitator Tresca Trott asked the after-school class to write down all the words they had learned during the eight-week workshop.Some of their words included alcohol, addiction and peer pressure. Words like ‘addiction’ were a challenge for some of the children to spell, but they were well on their way to defining it.“Once you start something that is addictive it is very hard to quit,” said Gabriel Burgess, eight. “I think when you get addiction to smoking you can’t stop. You need someone to help you. You can’t just stop on your own. It is very hard.”When the students were asked if they had ever been offered drugs and alcohol, there was a chorus of ‘no’.When Ms Trott was asked ‘why start at this age?’, Gabriel piped up, ‘well, why not?’, which seemed to sum things up very well.According to the website www.focusas.com, the average age when young people first try alcohol is 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls. And by the age of 14, 41 percent of children have had least one drink.“We are starting at this age because even though peers may not be offering them alcohol, sometimes adults offer children alcohol,” said Ms Trott. “They say it is okay if you have a sip of this or that.“It is important for children to understand that at their age alcohol is particularly dangerous. They are still growing. We live in a culture where alcohol is very prevalent.“We just feel they need to understand the consequences of drinking alcohol, especially at an early age. The programme doesn’t just focus on drugs and alcohol.“We are also focused on cultivating the whole child. We are looking at decision making. Those things will take them through life, so when they do get to the point where one of their peers are offering them drugs or alcohol they have the knowledge and confidence to say no. We practice how it should be done.”The students also learned to deal with the emotional consequences of rejecting someone’s offer of alcohol or drugs.“Sometimes when you are offered drugs, and you say no, the other person might say something that offends you,” said Te-Lyah. “Then you might be sad that you said no to something.“You sit down with someone and talk about your feelings. You could tell your parents, or your teacher that the person has offended you.”Ms Trott said the students were learning coping skills.“If you are feeling bad, you might get some rest, or listen to music,” said one of the boys.Teyah Lindo, ten, said: “Ms Trott taught us to try to reach our goals, and to say no to drugs, alcohol and also fighting.”Margaret Giloth, senior supervisor of the after-school programme at the Department of Youth and Sport, was instrumental in getting the CADA programme into government schools.“Teaching children lifeskills will make for more balanced children,” she said. “As you can see from these children’s responses they are seeing so many things out in the community, and this brings clarity to that.”She said the programme was available in nine primary schools, currently.Next, year the programme will switch over to the primary schools that didn’t have it this year, so that in a two-year period, all government primary schools are reached.“I am work in conjunction with my colleague, Ellan Smith, to deliver a host of enrichment programmes for approximately 500 children at 11 school sites,” said Ms Giloth. “We hire 11 supervisors and about 70 recreational workers to administer the programme.“While our programme is primarily recreational [to provide children with an appropriate level of physical activity], we do aim to expose the children to new and innovative activities to balance their after-school experience.“CADA’s eight-week programme is an excellent medium to provide lifetime skills to our youth. The after-school programme’s theme for 2011 is After School Programme (ASP) kids sustaining Bermuda’s future, which includes recycling, pen pal club, and gardening to name just a few.”Ms Giloth said so far they had had positive feedback from students and parents.“Our hope is they will continue to hold those things they have learned and to use them if and when the opportunities come. We have heard of children saying things to their parents relative to what they have learned.“The parent is being reminded of their responsibilities from the children. It is a long-term investment. Our hope is we will see the fruit of it later on.“We want to see more young people pursuing their goals and dreams and not being sidetracked by substance abuse issues.”