Abstract

Scouts are ideally positioned to play a major role in tobacco prevention in Egypt. Scouts have a large base of motivated young girls and boys (100,000 registered and many more afflitated) who are keen to serve the community and are influential leaders among their peers. They have a network of Scouts offices in all parts of the country with an excellent communication system. We estimate that Scouts in Egypt may be able to reach as many as 5 million Egyptians of all ages and the cost is negligible. In addition, our outreach will strengthen the resolve of all the Scouts to abstain from tobacco. The Egyptian Smoking Prevention Research Institute(ESPRI) created a training program for Scouts to carry out smoking prevention among Scouts, their friends, family and the community. In addition, merit badge on smoking has been developed to allow interested Scouts to learn more about smoking. This badge will be given to the scout who can help one ore more of his friends for quitting. Health education workshops for Scout leaders (training of trainers) have been carried out. Six regional training programs have been carried out. Arab League of Scouts is training Scouts in other neighboring countries and has pledged to introduce merit badge in other Arab countries. So far, the ESPRI has trained 47 Scout leaders from other countries and more training sessions have been scheduled.

Poster