VZCZCXRO2465
PP RUEHIK
DE RUEHAH #0210/01 0431311
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 121311Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4244
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 6254
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 3928
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3787
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RHMCSUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 4498
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000210 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, INL/AAE BUHLER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR PGOV SOCI TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN: RED CRESCENT SOCIETY VOLUNTEERS 
SHOWCASE DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION EFFORTS 
 
REF:  Ashgabat 147 
 
ASHGABAT 00000210  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY:  INL Assistant met recently with an 
instructor from the Red Crescent Society's Drug Demand 
Reduction Project, as well as local project volunteers.  The 
instructor highlighted the project's educational activities 
with students and teachers and its public outreach.  The 
teenage volunteers, in turn, were eager to share their success 
stories about engaging with their peers.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
ADDICTS AVOID MEETING WITH INSTRUCTORS 
 
¶3. (SBU) On February 10, INL Assistant traveled to the town of 
Owadan, about 12 miles outside Ashgabat, to meet with Patma 
Kadyrova, an instructor with the INL-funded Drug Demand 
Reduction Project (DDRP).  The project, implemented by the 
National Red Crescent Society (RCS), educates adults and youth 
about the hazards of drug addiction.  Four project volunteers 
also joined the meeting.  Patma briefed on her activities and 
accomplishments since the project's inception in late 2008. 
She targets her presentations to adolescent students in 
schools.  A teacher by training, she particularly enjoys 
working with students, but has found doing outreach to local 
doctors and nurses equally satisfying.  Working with families 
has been much harder, she said.  Those with no experience with 
addiction are not interested, and the families of addicts are 
ashamed to discuss the problem with an outsider.  On several 
occasions, women - the spouses or family members of addicts - 
have confided in her and asked that she come to the home and 
try to talk to their drug-addicted son or husband.  The 
addicts have an averse reaction to such visits.  "When I come 
to visit them, they (the addicts) run off and try to avoid 
me," she said.  "They are either too ashamed to talk, or start 
shouting, accusing me of being from the police.  In such 
cases, all I can do is leave copies of my brochures and ask 
that they call me another time." 
 
EVERYBODY WANTS TO VOLUNTEER 
 
¶4. (SBU) Patma said that she had 17 volunteers working for her 
in Ahal Province.  Two are adults -- a nurse and a high school 
teacher -- and the other 15 are teenagers.  Only six of the 17 
are trained volunteers, able to conduct the peer-to-peer 
classes.  The rest are enthusiastic teen-agers anxious to work 
with the Red Crescent Society and the DDRP.  Patma explained 
it like this, "Schools no longer offer extra-curricular or 
after school activities, so young people have very little to 
do with their free time.  Here, they enjoy getting together 
with their peers and accompanying us to different venues for 
presentations. They pass our brochures to the audience and 
help in other ways, too.  It's fun, and they feel that they're 
doing something useful." 
 
¶5. The four teenage volunteers (all female) who were present 
looked about 17 or 18.  They said that many of their 
classmates also want to participate in the project.  One of 
them, Govher, said "We always tell them that anyone can join 
us.  All you need is the desire to help and, of course, be a 
good student." 
 
HOW DO YOU HELP A DRUG ADDICT? 
 
¶6. (SBU) Patma and her volunteers said that the most 
frequently-asked question during their presentations is "How 
can I help someone stop using drugs?"  She said that many 
people have an addict in the family and are desperate to find 
a way to help them be cured, but there are no specialized 
 
ASHGABAT 00000210  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
treatment centers.  Another common question is "What are 
symptoms of addiction?"  She said that, during a visit to an 
orphanage, she asked the children to draw a picture of what 
they thought a drug addict looked like.  "All the children 
draw pictures of scary, ugly men.  Some drew monsters," Gowher 
said. 
 
WHAT'S IN THE GIFT BOX? 
 
¶7. (SBU) The volunteers said that teenagers love the peer-to- 
peer classes.  One volunteer named Oguljeren said, "Our 
presentations take place in a friendly atmosphere and we 
sometimes play thematic games."  One of the games that they 
play with their peers is called "What's in the gift box?"  The 
object of the game is to present a box to the audience and ask 
them to guess what is inside.  Anyone can look inside, on the 
condition that they not reveal the contents to the remaining 
"guessers."  The game demonstrates time and again, she said, 
that there are always people with poor will power, who cannot 
resist divulging the secret to the others.  She said that they 
tend to be the kinds of individuals vulnerable to peer 
pressure and drug addiction. 
 
¶8. (SBU) COMMENT:  Involving volunteers in DDRP activities is 
a cornerstone of the DDRP project, and part of its success. 
Many of the DDRP volunteers plan to continue with community 
activities in the future with the RCS or other NGOs.  Others, 
using their experience with drug demand reduction activities, 
say they want to study medicine and become physicians 
specialized in the treatment of drug addicts.  END COMMENT. 
 
CURRAN