The president of the Menos Álcool Mais Vida Foundation has warned of the high consumption of alcoholic beverages in Cape Verde, especially during the holiday season, and called for increased supervision of the trade, especially sales to children.
In an interview with Lusa, Manuel Faustino said that “there is some increase in alcohol consumption in the country,” where alcoholism is a serious social and public health problem.
“We don’t have objective data to say to what extent this is happening. [aumento do consumo do álcool]”, – the person in charge said, adding that the Fund intends to conduct a study to update the data published in October 2021.
At the time, the study concluded that 17% of the Cape Verdean population had stopped or reduced their consumption of alcoholic beverages due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Manuel Faustino said he feared the situation would worsen, reversing the previous trend of reducing or stopping alcohol consumption in the country, noting that during holidays, parties and festivals “there is a greater tendency for alcohol abuse to increase.”
The foundation’s president said that achieving reductions in alcohol consumption requires “more education and information” about alcohol consumption, beyond what is taught in schools, “involving families, communities and more intensive supervision.”
He recalled that the law prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors in Cape Verde, but “often” it is children who buy them because their mother, father or family member told them to.
“Until there is an understanding that it is very harmful for children to buy alcoholic beverages, we can only hope that the inspection will not allow the seller to sell to minors,” he asked.
He also argued that it was necessary to protect vulnerable people such as children and young people, as well as those who are not prone to alcohol.
“The law protects health and life itself if it is followed. In some places, there are sometimes institutions that do not understand their role, promoting activities that encourage non-compliance with the law and even abuse in consumption,” he said.
The person in charge said in an interview with Lusa this week that the Foundation, together with its staff, intends to develop a special program to encourage people to be more careful about drinking alcohol.
The aim is also to create an online and face-to-face training programme for activists, members of various Cape Verdean institutions.
Meanwhile, Manuel Faustino expressed regret that the Foundation still does not have a structure that would allow it to make all this work work.
“To do all this, to maintain contacts, to develop programs, to conduct dialogue with various institutions, to respond to various requests, we naturally need a structure,” he warned.
The Menos Álcool Mais Vida Foundation was created in September 2022 to continue the campaign of the same name, launched in 2018 by the former President of the Republic of Cape Verde, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, when Manuel Faustino was head of the Civil House.
The Alcohol Law came into force in Cape Verde on October 5, 2019 and prohibits any form of advertising of alcoholic beverages, the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors under 18 years of age, as well as on public roads, street trading or in kiosks.
Alcoholism is a serious social and public health problem in Cape Verde.
A report presented in September 2019 showed that alcohol and drug use are among the main health problems among Cape Verdean adolescents.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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