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Nada joins JAAGRITI- QUIT SMOKING CAMPAIGN at Amity University campus on World Health Day 2010

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The closing ceremony of the Jaagriti Quit Smoking Campaign was held on 7 April, 2010. The chief speaker was Mr. Suneel Vatsyayan, Chairman, Nada India Foundation. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Ajay Rana, Director, ATPC, Mrs. Pallavi , Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Director General, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Dr. S. M. Paul Khurana, Director, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Dr. Roumi Deb, Director, Amity Institute of Anthropology, faculty members of Amity Institute of Biotechnology and students.After the introductory speech, a play was performed by the students of the Dramatics Society of Amity Institute of Biotechnology. The play showed how students succumb to smoking due to peer pressure and also the hazards of smoking. This was followed by welcoming speech by Prashant Kaushik, student coordinator of Jaagriti. Bouquets were given to Mr. and Mrs. Vatsyayan by the Director and Director General of Amity Institute of Biotechnology respectively.
This was followed by lecture cum PowerPoint presentation cum counseling session by Mr. Suneel Vatsyayan in which he spoke about:
• The various hazards of smoking to self: slow killer, addictive, causes many diseases.
• The hazards to others: passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking. A smoker is just like a murderer without having any compassion for the society.
• To Quit Smoking is easy. One just needs the right motivation and support.
• Role of society: to acknowledge one’s problems and issues, rather than criticizing them. To provide help, support and counseling to the one who requires them. He also emphasized on the fact that one should not hesitate in asking for help from the people surrounding him rather than letting things go out of control and it getting too late.
• Formation of help groups and support centers. Students should form small help groups within themselves and students should volunteer to provide help. The help centre should not only target on quit smoking but also on other health related and social issues.
The presentation was followed by an interactive session between the students and Mr. Vatsyayan. The event was concluded with a vote of thanks being delivered by Dr. Roumi Deb. Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Dr. S. M. Paul Khurana and Dr. Ajay Rana gave a memento to Mr. Vatsyayan as a token of thanks for having come to Amity and for providing counseling to the students.


From our findings from the survey and also after talking to the students, we realize that there are many students in the campus who wish to quit smoking but are not able to do so because of peer pressure or because they are not able to find the right type of motivational requirement. Hence, we request the university to allow us to form help groups run by the enlightened, aware and responsible students so that they can help others. Nada India Foundation has agreed to provide training to the students who wish to act as peer counselors and peer leaders to fight tobacco addiction.
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