Study highlights parents’ role in alcohol drinking amongst underage students

For Brarudi: “Yes to beer, but not to be served to the underage!”

A study has found that 50 per cent of underage students drink alcoholic beverages mainly provided to them by their families. The majority of the children start drinking before the age of 10. SOJPAE, a local NGO that promotes children’s rights and well-being, carried out the study to assess the situation of alcohol consumption amongst minors at school and its causes.

The study was conducted from 8 to 10 March 2017 on 7017 students from 17 provinces of the country.The results show that “one in two children drinks alcohol with virtually no distinction of gender and that parents are mainly responsible for providing alcoholic beverages to children”, says David Ninganza, Spokesman for SOJPAE.

In so doing, parents expose their children to various problems that are counterproductive to academic achievement.
“We have observed that alcohol may induce or aggravate irresponsible behaviours in the youth [at school]”, says Edouard Juma, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education.

The behaviours include physical or verbal aggression, sexual misconduct that may result in undesired pregnancies, absenteeism or expulsion from school. To prevent students from falling into those problems,school regulations prohibit drinking at school. The regulations seek to help students “remain clear-sighted so that they commit to pedagogical activities”, says Juma.

SOJPAE, the Ministry of Education and Brarudi (the main producer of beers and soft drinks in Burundi and the commissioner of the study) plan activities to curb the problem. They intend to organise, from 8 May, consciousness raising sessions for parents in 261 schools around the country. They will also create 250 associations of parents. Brarudi will fund the programme.

“The programme aims at encouraging parents to start a sincere talk with their children to prohibit alcohol consumption by minors”, says Sacha Rwamibango, the Corporate Affairs Manager in Brarudi.
Alcoholic beverages have a central role in the Burundian culture. They are at the heart of social gatherings. At the same time, reports say 60% of problems in Burundian families and companies are due to alcohol.