BRAZILIANS "DARE" TO STRENGTHEN DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION

UNCLAS BRASILIA 001907 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR INL, WHA/BSC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR EAID KCRM PREL BR SUBJECT: BRAZILIANS "DARE" TO STRENGTHEN DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION PROGRAM REF: BRASILIA 1893 ¶1. (U) The Brazilian National Anti-drug Secretariat (SENAD) and the National Public Safety Secretariat (SENASP) convened a national conference on September 27-28 to re-assess the U.S.-based Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.),or PROERD as it is known in Brazil. The federal government is now looking to play a role in strengthening PROERD by expanding the program's reach beyond children to include adolescents and parents. Paulo Roberto Uchoa, the National Anti-drug Secretary (Brazilian Drug Czar),and Dr. Antonio Biscaia, Secretary for National Public Safety, headlined the conference, which included the participation of PROERD representatives from all 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District. Uchoa publicly praised the program's "extraordinary" outreach, and committed GOB assistance to help Brazilian states locally implement a more ambitious version of PROERD. He made a special point to thank NAS Brasilia for past USG support, adding that he hoped to continue the "productive relationship." -------------- BACKGROUND ON NAS SUPPORT -------------- ¶2. (U) Brazil's PROERD program, which is modeled after the U.S. D.A.R.E. program, was established in 1992 following a successful ConGen Rio public affairs speaker program that brought police officers from Los Angeles, California, to the state of Rio de Janeiro. NAS financially supported development projects that provided regional training to uniformed police officers, and the program eventually expanded to all 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District. At its inception, due to limited state budgets, nearly all regional and international training courses were USG-funded. PROERD, which is locally implemented by 2,776 uniformed state police officers, is now fully financed by state budgets and boasts five regional training centers in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, and the Federal District. Cost-sharing has also helped: participating police officers are paid from the state budget, and workbooks are often provided by local businesses or by parents of children in private schools. ¶3. (U) Over 7 million Brazilian children, and parents in some cases, have participated in at least one of the three PROERD curricula being implemented countrywide. Over the years, supporters and critics alike have studied, re-assessed, and ultimately adapted the program for Brazilian audiences. Some innovations to the delivery method developed in Brazil include translation of the program workbook to Braille and training in Brazilian sign language (Libra). PROERD has become the second largest program of its kind in the world, and it maintains an important link with the world's biggest program: D.A.R.E. in the United States. Program updates and new curricula implemented in the United States are sometimes translated and tailored to Brazilian audiences, often delivered by U.S. police officers in international conferences or seminars supported by NAS. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (U) USG support has helped PROERD grow from local initiatives heavily dependent on USG funding into a virtually self-sustaining nationwide drug prevention program. The GOB, which hitherto had maintained its distance from the "state-run" PROERD, appears to be warming up to the program's potential. For the first time in the history of PROERD, the GOB has publicly praised it, acknowledged some results, and committed federal support to help the various state police forces with funding, material, technical support, and assistance in coordinating training. It remains to be seen whether SENAD and SENASP can tap into the program's already established network to disseminate prevention messages and other services through the uniformed state (military) police -- one of the few official entities present in nearly all of the Brazil's 5,564 cities. CHICOLA