Scottsdene High School pupils took advantage of the free condoms distributed at a health and safety expo at their school on Wednesday March 1, snapping them up by the box-full.
Several young boys carried full boxes of condoms as they visited branded gazebos for educational talks.
Representatives from Rape Crisis, social services, social development, city health, the traffic department and SAPS spoke to the pupils about how health issues, drugs, crime and gangsterism can affect their future.
“The main aim was really health awareness,” one of the organisers of the event, teacher Roslyn Katts, said. “It is part of the Grades 8 and 9 curriculum.”
At the SAPS stall, police officers and CPF members told the pupils about crime-scene investigations and some of the horror stories involving gangs and drugs that they had dealt with.
At the social development stall, pupils listened with glum faces as they heard what drugs and alcohol do to unborn babies.
Holding up a doll representing a baby with foetal alcohol syndrome, Dornay Fester said: “A child like this doesn’t understand you when you speak. You’ll send them to do one thing and they will do something else because their brains aren’t developed.”
Ms Fester warned that men were not exempt because drugs damaged sperm too.
Pupils were given the opportunity to be tested for HIV and could also have their blood sugar and blood pressure tested.
