Welcome to Place of Wellness & Health Foundation | PWHF

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Promoting Wellness and a Healthy Future — Youth-Led Campaigns for Substance Abuse Prevention and Mental Health Awareness in Kano State

Introduction

The Place of Wellness and Health Foundation (PWHF) is a registered non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of underserved communities across Nigeria. Guided by our mission to raise awareness, empower minds, and promote behavioural change through public health education, PWHF focuses on mental health awareness, substance abuse prevention, and healthy lifestyle promotion among women and youth.

Our vision is a Nigeria where every woman and youth is mentally empowered, substance-free, and able to live a healthy, fulfilling life in dignity and freedom. This report highlights our recent youth-focused interventions that align closely with the Global Youth Declaration on Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery 2025.

Substance Abuse in Kano State, Nigeria: Scope, Drivers, and Consequences

Drug abuse in Kano State, Nigeria has reached crisis proportions, with an estimated 16% prevalence among people aged 15–64 — affecting well over one million residents and ranking the state among the highest in the country (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency [NDLEA], 2025; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2019).

The menace involves not only widely known substances such as cannabis and opioids (tramadol, codeine) but also emerging locally made psychoactive drugs that have proliferated among youths and out-of-school populations, worsening dependency and social disruption. Drivers of this crisis include Kano's large and often unemployed youth population, pervasive socio-economic stressors (poverty, family instability), weak law enforcement, and the perception that drug traffickers operate with impunity above the law, undermining trust in legal systems.

The consequences extend beyond health to elevated criminality, including thuggery, banditry, kidnapping, violence, and general insecurity, as substance misuse erodes community cohesion and fuels illicit behaviours. Despite efforts by NDLEA and partners, rehabilitation capacity remains grossly inadequate locally; nationally there are only about 30 counselling and rehabilitation centres — with very few directly accessible to Kano residents — and even where services exist (such as expanded facilities at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital with support from ECOWAS) or that of Psychiatric Hospital Dawanau, demand far outstrips supply (NDLEA,
2025; The Guardian, 2025; The Gazelle News, 2025). Given these multi-dimensional impacts on public health, social stability, and economic development, Kano State requires serious intervention from the international community, including technical and financial support for prevention, treatment, enforcement, and research to buttress local systems and break the cycle of addiction and insecurity.

Fourth Quarter Activities

1. Massive Awareness Campaigns Against Substance Abuse
   
   In 2025, PWHF embarked on a state-wide awareness campaign across Kano to combat the rising trend of substance misuse and its devastating impact on young people. The campaign combined community outreach, lectures, and creative youth engagement strategies under our flagship "Clean Minds, Clear Futures" initiative.
   
   Through school visits, community events, and public dialogues, we reached thousands of adolescents, students, and parents with educational messages on understanding substance use, misuse, and addiction; identifying commonly abused substances in our environment; recognizing the health, social, and legal consequences of substance use; and promoting practical prevention, early detection, and help-seeking behaviours. Our campaigns featured youth ambassadors, peer educators, and recovering addicts who shared personal stories to inspire empathy and drive change.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Targeting Youth – With Special Emphasis on Young Women
   Recognizing the unique challenges faced by young women, PWHF designed gender-responsive sessions that encouraged open discussions around mental health, self-esteem, and resilience. Female facilitators and mentors created safe spaces for dialogue, helping young women understand social pressures that may lead to substance use, while equipping them with coping mechanisms, confidence, and leadership skills. This approach reflects PWHF's commitment to
   empower women as change agents within their families and communities.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. School-Based Interventions and Club Formation
   Schools remain one of the most strategic focal points for prevention and early intervention. They are places where young people learn, socialize, and form behaviours that can influence their lifelong attitudes toward substances. Reaching students early helps to build knowledge and resilience before exposure to peer pressure, encourage healthy coping mechanisms for academic and emotional stress, and create a multiplier effect as informed students become
   advocates among their peers.
   
   PWHF therefore prioritized both secondary and tertiary institutions as key platforms for awareness. Our activities included lectures, film screenings, and interactive question sessions where students learned about the science of addiction, peer influence, and the importance of seeking help early. A major milestone was the establishment of "Substance Abuse Prevention and Early Detection Clubs" (SAPED Club) in several schools. These clubs, managed by student leaders under teacher supervision, now serve as sustainable platforms promoting healthy choices, peer support, and early identification of at-risk students.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Community Ambassadors Network
   To ensure sustainability, PWHF launched a Community Ambassadors Network — a group of trained volunteers representing various localities across Kano. These youth ambassadors organize periodic sensitization activities, identify and support at-risk individuals, and advocate for drug-free living through social and religious gatherings. This initiative has significantly increased grassroots participation and ownership, reinforcing our bottom-up community
   engagement approach that values local leadership and cultural relevance.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Stakeholder Collaboration and Advocacy
   Understanding that the substance use crisis requires a collective, multi-sectoral effort, PWHF has been actively engaging stakeholders to build synergy and shared responsibility. Our advocacy efforts have brought together government ministries and agencies (Health, Youth, Education), NDLEA, Hisbah Board, and security partners, community and religious leaders, business stakeholders and philanthropists, as well as academic institutions and NGOs. These
   partnerships aim to strengthen prevention frameworks, promote rehabilitation support, and integrate youth-led perspectives into state-level policy and strategy discussions.
   
   A major milestone achieved during the fourth quarter (October–December 2025) was the formal collaboration with the Kano State Senior Secondary Schools Management Board (KSSSSMB)—the statutory body responsible for regulating and coordinating activities across senior secondary schools in Kano State. PWHF has established and continues to strengthen a robust partnership with KSSSSMB, which oversees more than 826 senior secondary schools
   across Kano State. Through this collaboration, we have initiated one of the largest school￾based substance abuse prevention campaigns in northern Nigeria, reaching tens of thousands of students and teachers across the state.
   
   Key components of this collaboration include:
   a. Statewide school outreach programmes focused on substance abuse prevention and mental health awareness
   
   b. Planned capacity-building trainings for teachers and school counsellors on early identification, prevention, and referral pathways
   
   c. Establishment of Substance Abuse Prevention and Early Detection (SAPED) Clubs to promote peer education, youth leadership, and sustained engagement
   
   d. Joint development of age-appropriate Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) materials tailored to the school environment
   
   e. Research-based evidence generation among senior secondary school girls to assess substance use awareness, patterns, and risk factors, and to inform data-driven, girl￾focused prevention strategies and policy advocacy.
   
   This partnership represents a critical step toward embedding preventive education and early intervention within the formal education system and ensuring long-term, youth-centered solutions to substance abuse in Kano State.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

[Bintee]

Thank you very much for your effort. May Allah continue to strengthen you and your team members. We need more eof such initiatives in kano.