Smoke Free Greece is a series of coordinated actions organized by the George D. Behrakis Research Lab of the Hellenic Cancer Society and the Public Health Institute of the American College of Greece aiming to reduce smoking in our country.
The aim is to educate students using scientific information on tobacco.
The SMOKEFREEGREECE interventions take place in specially designed educational centers located in three Greek cities:
Since 2009, over 50,830 students have actively participated with many more to participate in the upcoming academic year.
The Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs approve the tobacco prevention interventions on an annual basis.
Since 2010, Annual Panhellenic School Student Conferences entitled, “Education for a SMOKEFREE GENERATION” have taken place which have included an Annual Panhellenic School Student Competition since 2013. The competition, with a varying theme for tobacco prevention every year, encourages students to express through artistic means such as drawing, painting, musical composition, video clips and animation on the selected topic of that year. These artistic works are presented and displayed at the student conference. Prizes are awarded to students during a special ceremony.
More than 7,000 students have participated in educational activities, theatrical and musical events.
More than 4,000 school-aged students have participated in the competitions.
The competition theme of the 7th Annual Student Conference in 2016 was “Smoking and its effects on the Environment”. The students were asked to write a letter to a recipient of their choice, real or imaginary, referring to how smoking affects the environment.
The half-day workshop consists of a theoretical followed by a practical session.
The theoretical session aims to educate teachers, parents and volunteers through scientifically based lectures on the health effects of smoking and passive smoking and the effective methods for prevention and cessation of smoking among school-aged children. During the practical session the participants are taught the methodology of the intervention followed by hands-on practice through a mock intervention using role play.
The workshop has been approved by the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs. Participation is free of charge and all participants who complete the training receive a certificate at the end of the session.
Over 1,750 teachers have completed the “train-the-trainer” workshop cities all over Greece including in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Tripoli, Volos, Karditsa, Heraklion, Chios, Alexandroupolis, Ioannina and Chania.
The workshops were later tailored for health professionals to host interventions in hospitals and health centers.
