The project addressing alcohol addiction prevention “Be Independent!” is being organised for the fifth year, and this year it focuses on the social media environment that is so familiar to young people.  The messengers of the project “Be Independent!” were chosen among popular young people, who shared their experience with others – singer The Ludvig, Youtube video creator Beata Jonite, snowboarder Toms Petrusevičs and many more. The aim was to achieve that young people inform and inspire their peers. In the second part of the project all teenagers in Latvia were encouraged to participate in a video competition and create educational videos on issues concerning alcohol addiction among young people and show this information in a comprehensible form.

This year the alcohol addiction prevention project “Be Independent!” was concluded on 26th May in a special cinema screening in Forum Cinemas. During the event, a certified narcologist Ilze Maksima was talking directly to the young audience, as she encounters the consequences of overindulging alcohol in young age and treats addictions. The attendees were greeted with a video of the snowboarder Toms Petrusevičs, who encouraged young people to evaluate priorities and to work to achieve higher goals.

The organisers of the project “Be Independent!” are “Cēsu alus” and the “Be Free” addiction prevention association. “As one of their priorities in the social responsibility sphere, “Cēsu alus” has chosen to educate society, identifying young people as their target audience. Young people are that part of the society that is easier influenced by advertisements, cinema industry and things that happen around them, therefore they are a risk group when talking about early and reckless alcohol consumption,” says Agita Kārkliņa, Communications Manager of Cēsu alus.

During the closing ceremony of the project “Be Independent!”, four students from Jelgava Technical highschool, the winners of the video competition that was organised within this project, showed the video they made on the topic. The video informs teenagers about the following- the effects alcohol has on a body of a teenager, the possible consequences of alcohol consumption in young age, and alternative ways to spend free time without using alcohol.

The project “Be Independent!” is being organised since 2012. By organising discussions, entertaining activities and practical seminars in schools, the video competition, as well as communicating with the audience on the Facebook page of the project www.facebook.com/EsiNeatkarigs, the project has reached out to more than 1400 teenagers. The organiser and the author of the initiative is “Cēsu alus”. The project is being organised with the support of “Be Free” addiction prevention association.