We are SAATHI
Sikkim Against Addiction Towards Healthy India
Aims to remove substance abuse and generate aw
Sikkim Against Addiction Towards Healthy India (SAATHI) is a Non-Governmental Organization, working with the vision of making Sikkim a Drug Free State. It is a school based Peer Education Model to prevent drug use disorders.
SAATHI was conceived on the premise that “There are no teachers, there are only learners” and therefore the system of ‘Peer Education’ was introduced. The aim of the project is to curb the issue of substance abuse and to educate students, parents, and school administration about the health and socio-economic implications of it. SAATHI empowers and enables the youth of Sikkim, through quality holistic education, to realize their full potential and understand their roles and responsibilities in making meaningful contributions to the development of a prosperous and happy Sikkim.
SAATHI was registered as an NGO in the year 2015. It’s main goal is to embed its methods in the school curriculum and make itself a self-sustained model. The essential idea revolves around the fact that peer educators and learners share common experiences and have ease of communication.
The Peer Educators function as a facilitator and as someone who makes learning easier by working on problems with the learner, by demonstrating how he/she goes about challenging a situation or abnegating an offer. An educator can often be more effective by his or her actions than by simply advising the learner.
Our Mission
- SAATHI’s mission is to remove substance abuse in schools of Sikkim through Peer educators and empower students to feel free from the stigma of drug abuse.
Our Vision
- To co-create a societal eco-system to eliminate substance abuse in schools and ensure the mental well-being of our citizens of all ages, in a sustainable manner through counselling and learning.
- To integrate SDGs into the program so that we achieve the purpose.
- SDG 3 – Good health and well–being – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being of all at all ages.
Philosophy
SAATHI was conceptualized on the premise that ‘There are no Teachers, there are only Learners’ and hence the system of “Peer Education” was introduced. The idea behind it being, the peer educators and learners share some degree of common experience. Therefore, people belonging to the same peer group irrespective of their class, age, gender or any other social construct can communicate best and understand each other better. The peer educator functions as a facilitator, someone who makes learning easier and hence can reach the project goals more effectively as possible.
Programme Deliverables
The project deliverables are:
(a) Decrease in dropout rate amongst the students attributed to drugs;
(b) Decrease in the number of the students consuming substance;
(c) Increase in the number of the students who wish to be peer educators;
(d) Decrease in the number of drug related incidents in schools
SAATHI’s Belief System.
SAATHI’s belief system is based on 6 principles that guides on how it thinks and acts:
- Student Learn and Lead.
SAATHI utilizes the idea of friendship as a key tool to educate students about drug abuse. The reason behind this is that the youth are most likely to listen to their friends and people of their own age rather than the elders or anybody else for that matter. SAATHI is where friends truly come first in a meaningful and purposeful way.
- Good Cultural Fit.
SAATHI is designed to integrate itself into a larger cultural landscape in which it operates: families, communities and state.
- Calibrated for Audiences.
SAATHI is different for different age groups to ensure its efficacy (as a twelve year old would think very differently from, say, a seventeen- year-old).
- Accurate and Balanced Information.
SAATHI presents only the most engaging, relevant and targeted information that can be digested and acted upon.
- Experiential, Mode – Based Learning.
SAATHI uses innovative and intuitive methods of learning that are easy to teach and even easier to relate to.
- Professional Teams.
SAATHI is a professional programme with a code of conduct, check-ins, and reviews that ensure its standards and behaviours are always met.