A 16-YEAR-OLD Northside student has scooped the overall prize at this year’s
‘Let’s Talk About Drugs’ National Media Awards.
Sarah Dillon, a student at Dominican College on Griffith Avenue, was presented with her award at a special ceremony held at the Aisling Hotel on May 23.
Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for Primary Care and the Drugs Strategy, Roisin Shortall, presented the overall award to Sarah in front of over 180 invited guests.
Sarah was awarded the top prize for her short film entitled
‘The Difference’ which highlights the need for improved drugs education for young children in particular.
Sarah’s movie portrayed the problems that can arise when a parent is using drugs in the home and the knock-on effects that can have on children.
The annual
‘Let’s Talk About Drugs’ awards is organised by Dublin 15 based Greater Blanchardstown Response to Drugs (GBRD) to encourage a greater understanding and awareness in Ireland around drugs and alcohol issues.
In all 24 awards were presented at the ceremony on May 23 with the winners coming from primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and youth groups right across the country.
The winners were praised for their efforts in highlighting the effects of substance abuse through newspaper articles, audio features, short films and cartoon strips.
The educational initiative, which is sponsored by the County Dublin VEC and the Health Service Executive through Drugs.ie, was set up to encourage students and adults to educate themselves and others about alcohol and drugs.
Phillip Keegan, Co-ordinator with Greater Blanchardstown Response to Drugs, congratulated the winners and all those who took part in this year’s competition.
“The winners are deserving recipients of this distinction, based on the quality, content and execution of their winning submissions,
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“These entries were chosen as a result of the hard work and effort undertaken by the winners to highlight, not just among themselves, but also among the wider public, the issues that can arise through drug and alcohol use.
“The Let’s Talk About Drugs awards has grown from strength to strength and this year we received a record breaking number of entries from students and adults throughout Ireland.
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Another finalist, WestTrav Youth Project based in Tuam, Co Galway, was presented with a special GBRD Spirit Award for their short film about drug use within the Traveller community.
This special award, marking the GBRD’s 20th anniversary, recognised the group for fully entering into the spirit of the initiative through accurate research and engaging people in the drugs and alcohol debate.
The two themes for this year’s initiative were
‘Underage Drinking – Is Pricing the Only Solution?’ and
‘Drug Education in Schools – Are We Doing Enough?’
Phoenix FM and the Dublin People Group were the media partners for this year’s competition, with support from 3e’s fyi programme. All winning submissions will be either published or broadcast over the coming weeks and organisers have also confirmed that the winning entries are available for download at www.gbrd.ie