HK Grants More Funds to Drug Prevention ProjectsThe Hong Kong government has granted around 500,000 HK dollars (64,100 US dollars) to finance 19 district anti-drug preventive education and publicity projects under the Community Against Drugs Scheme (CADS) in the year 2000/ 2001, according to a government press release Monday.Funded by the Action Committee Against Narcotics (ACAN) of Hong Kong, the objective of the CADS is to encourage non-profit-making organizations, such as voluntary bodies and schools, to launch preventive education and publicity projects to further the anti- drug cause. Since its inception in 1972, the scheme has been an integral part of ACAN's drug prevention program. This year, the upper limit of grant has been increased to 40,000 HK dollars (5,100 U.S. dollars) for each project in order to encourage more worthwhile and innovative proposals. Justein Wong, chairman of the ACAN Preventive Education and Publicity Sub-committee, said the assessment panel gives priority to those projects which target at areas with high drug abuse rate, youths at risk, and those providing training or support for volunteers in disseminating anti-drug messages. "Factors like the objective of the project, degree of innovation, number of beneficiaries, cost-effectiveness, scale of publicity, and the past performance of the applicants in using ACAN funds are also considered when assessing the projects," he added. |
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